New Sword Art Online Era
by 4fireking
Summary: A young boy with a very busy life meets Kiroko in the game. After three months he gets to see him again in SAO. But then he can't log out and is stuck with Kiroko in the game. To make matters worse Kiroko leaves him to go on his own adventure. The boy slowly finds out there's more to SAO then he originally thought. Will he be free or stuck in SAO?
1. Chapter 1

**The first chapter of this story was written by 4fireking and Fairy-L-Tail. It's kind of our second coming after Fairy Tail New Era. Hopefully people enjoy this story as much as the last story, maybe even a little more. Thank you and please read and review. **

XXX

In a large grassy meadow, the warm breeze blows stray flower petals through the air; filling it with it's sweet scent. Though the peaceful area filled with such sweet scent harbours two individuals, both standing as they face each other.

One of them, has short, shaggy black hair and grey eyes. He has a small frame, but is very tall. He wears a blue shirt, and black pants tucked into beige leather boots. With his arms crossed, you can easily see the sword held by his hip. Smiling, he looks to the other person.

He, like the first boy, is tall. With broad shoulders, he seems to carry himself tall. With dark brown hair pulled into a small braid, his blue eyes poke out from under his shaggy bangs. He wears a white shirt, the sleeves rolled up, and blue pants tucked into black leather boots. Unlike the first boy, his sword is placed on his back, the hilt above his shoulder.

"What is the best way to finish a game when you don't have much time in your day?" The first boy questions. His name, shown by the icon above his head reads Kirito.

"I know it's not spending hours a day fighting nothing but pigs," the seconds boy laughs. Like Kirito, he has an icon above his head, his name reading Inataro.

"It's finding cheats to the game," Kirito explains. "With the right cheats, you can get to a high level in no time, trust me."

"I appreciate you helping me in this new game. It cost me all my money, but it's really fun. And Kirito... I'm surprised your avatar looks so close to your normal body."

"So does yours, Taro." Kirito smirks, shifting on his feet.

"I always play with avatars that look nothing like me in other MMORPG games. Of course, I put a scar on my chin and usually make my hair pink, but I think that with this new game, it's time for a bit of a change." Inataro shrugs. "Also, quick questions, how do you become a Solo Player?"

"Don't try being a single player like me," Kirito stares at Inataro. "Build a guild, have lots of adventures. And, remember one thing..."

"To believe in myself?" Inataro interrupts.

"No." Kirito shakes his head. "Dodge and always slash their fronts."

Sighing, Inataro nods. "Race you to the woods?" He offers.

"You're on."

oOo

"To your left!" Kirito instructs, slicing through something called a Sesa. In the Black Forest, Sesa have overrun the area, killing all other animals in sight. The creatures look like wolves, but there are three things that makes them different; their blue fur, their glowing purple eyes and aura, and the black bull horns on their head.

Inataro, running towards a tree, flips off of it, raising his sword in the air. Screaming, he charges the sword and plunges it into the last Sesa. Standing up, he picks up his sword and flicks the blood off of it, watching as it disappears in a blue light.

"It's getting easier," Inataro smiles, shifting his sword from hand to hand.

Nodding, Kirito walks up to him. Pointing to the screen before them, Inataro reads it.

Result:

EXP 100

Col 150

Items 3

"Cool," Inataro nods. "Only a few more Sesa to go and I'll level up," he grins, swinging his sword in his hand.

"You should look at your inventory," Kirito advises, opening his.

"Why?" he questions.

"I got a weapon from those wolves and I'm wondering if you got the same thing."

Shrugging, Inataro opens his inventory. Scanning through it, he sees two new items. Looking at them closely, he smiles. "Adamantite Feet," he reads aloud, skimming the information. "Oh, they increase my speed point five percent more than the one's I'm wearing now." Clicking on a button, Inataro looks down at his feet, staring at the now brown boots with ivory horse buckles. "A little bland for my taste, but when I get better shoes, these ones are coming off."

Nodding, Kirito looks at the time on Inataro's screen. "Do you need to log out?" he questions.

"Why would I need to do that?" Inataro questions.

"Didn't you say something about playing for an hour and then -."

"Oh," Inataro cuts him off. "That's right. See you tomorrow in Starting City."

"Later," Kirito raises a hand, watching as he logs out.

oOo

Opening his eyes, Inataro pulls the Nerve Gear off his head and sits up on his old bed. Looking around his room, the fifteen year old boy looks around slowly, looking sadly at the decaying walls, and dust gathering around the room, setting the Nerve Gear on his night stand, he hisses when a shock of electricity hits him in the finger.

Getting up off his bed, he hears a bang on the door. Flinching slightly when his mother's voice screams at him to hurry up, he grabs his backpack and walks across the room to open the door. Moving past his mother, he walks to the front door, ignoring her calls.

Opening the door, Inataro sighs when he looks at the wasteland that was once his home. What was once a peaceful town is now ruins, and garbage. Jogging down the steps to his house, Inataro shifts his backpack on his shoulder and walks towards the dojo where his Kendo practice is held.

Ignoring the calls of the homeless, Inataro keeps his eyes to the ground, the only thing coming into sight is the worn sneakers on his feet. Imagining his boots on his feet, Inataro smiles slightly. With his mind going back to the game, time seems to pass by quickly as he comes to the front of the dojo. Walking in, Inataro looks around, sighing in relief when no one is around.

Quickly getting changed, Inataro bows before walking into the middle of the mat. '_Good_,' he thinks to himself. _'I have some time to practice my moves_.'

Shaking out his body, Inataro makes his way over to a wooden statue with eight arms sticking out of it. Starting off slow, he begins to hit the arms. Slowly building speed, Inataro shows off his stamina as he goes fast and faster, and longer and longer.

Stopping all movement when he hears a noise behind him, Inataro turns to see his Sensei walking towards him. He is an elder man with a short white beard and crinkled eyes. Wearing a bright yellow robe with black trim, he stops when he stands beside Inataro. "You must be weary," he starts, his voice soothing but firm. "You must save your strength for lessons."

"Yes sir," Inataro nods, backing away from the wooden doll. Now facing each other, the two put their hands in a praying motion and bow to each other.

"Move aside," the man says to Inataro. Nodding, Inataro moves out of the way, and watches as the Sensei walks up to the wooden doll. Doing exactly what he did, but faster, Inataro can only watch in shock and amazement as the Sensei increases his speed. Finishing, and breaking off an arm from the doll, the Sensei steps back from the doll and turns to Inataro who stands wide-eyed and breathless.

"That has to be the coolest thing I've ever seen," he nods slowly, his eyes darting back and forth between the doll and the Sensei. "Can I see it again?"

"Maybe later," he chuckles, patting Inataro on his shoulder. "But martial arts is not about fighting. Of course, you get to show off to the ladies, but it's about discipline. I know you have good intentions, but you should never use the skills you are learning for anything but self-defence or protection." He nods. "Your mother tells me that you've been spending less nights sleeping and more time playing that game."

"It's really fun to play," Inataro mutters. "I have to study for entrance exams, and take Kendo lessons, and worry about my family after everything that happened to this place. It's nice to do something fun for once. And when I'm playing the game, I'm not even awake. It's like... daydreaming."

"You misunderstand," he chuckles. "I'm not mad at your for playing that game, I think it's important that a child finds something that makes them happy. And yet, you must realize that these games have an addictive effect. Too much of it will fry your brain. But, if you ever need a moment to rest or think about the future... a cold shower works wonders."

"Got it," Inataro nods.

oOo

Walking home, Inataro stretches his sore muscles. After their talk, the Sensei trained Inataro and the others in the class so hard that it hurt Inataro to walk. They went over moves, sequences, and finally had a few battles at the end. Yet, every time someone was an inch out of place, Sensei would make them start from the beginning, or do fitness activities.

Walking up the steps to his house, Inataro opens the door. Closing it behind him, the teen slips off his shoes and begins to head to his room when the voice of his mother stops him. "Inataro, your father and I wish to speak to you."

Freezing in his steps, Inataro swallows the bile gathering in his throat. _'They never talk to me_,' he thinks to himself. _'They never talk to me. Whenever they talk to me it's because... someone in the family died. Was it Grams? Gramps? My cousins? Oh God, who was it_?'

Walking into the room, Inataro bites the inside of his cheek when he notices his father sitting down in his usually chair and his mother standing beside him. "Sit down," his father gestures to the couch.

Slowly sitting down, Inataro stares at his parents. "Taro," his mother begins softly, her tone making him feel even worse. "Your father and I have decided that we are taking away your video games."

Letting out a sigh of relief, Inataro pauses. "Wait, what?"

"You have been losing sleep, forgetting simple things, you started drinking coffee to keep you awake. You are slacking in kendo, you are slacking in school, and -." His father begins but Inataro cuts him off.

"But Dad, a VRMMORPG isn't a game you're awake for. It's like living in a second -."

"You father wasn't done talking, Inataro." His mother interrupts him, making Inataro sigh.

"I'm sorry," Inataro sighs, biting the inside of his cheek.

"We have to cut you off one day," His father continues. "We will be taking away your gaming station until the summer when you don't have classes."

"W-what?" Inataro blinks. "That's three months from now! How is that fair?! You can't take away my game!"

"Not tonight," his mother sighs. "Tonight you can have it, but after tomorrow you won't play until the summer."

Nodding slowly, Inataro gets up from his seat and makes his way into his room. Dropping his bag by his door, he sighs. "What am I going to tell Kirito?"

oOo

Shifting his sword from side to side, Kirito sighs as he looks around him. Watching as someone appears in front of him, Kirito smirks when Inataro looks at him shocked. "You actually came." he states, smiling.

"I never logged out," Kirito shrugs. "I did go into the woods to train, got a new sword."

Nodding, Inataro scratches the back of his neck. "Look, Kirito, I have someone to tell you and I want to say it early because something might happen, but I'm not going to be able to play with you anymore."

Nodding, Kirito laughs, sheathing the sword. "I knew something was bugging you, it' clearly written on your face. I'm not surprised either, did your parents tell you that you can't play this game with exams coming up and you have to wait until exams are over and summer is here?"

"Yeah," Inataro nods. "How did you know?"

"Because you're a momma's boy," Kirito laughs when Inataro punches him in the arm."

"We have all night," Inataro shrugs. "We can go on a quest."

"Sure," Kirito nods.

"What about the Secret Medicine of the Forest one?"

"Secret Medicine of the Forest is boring. It's on the first floor and doesn't have any real challenge. I was thinking we can try Witch of the West and the Three Treasures."

"The quest based on The Wizard of Oz? That's on the twenty second floor. It's too hard for a level twenty player like me to help in that quest. But, maybe we can do that quest I heard about in the fifth floor. I think it's called Chasing The Golden Ape. I don't know much about it, but I heard that it's fun." Inataro offers.

"I already did that quest," Kirito sighs. "When I got there, five of those apes helped the golden one. I took down three of the regular apes before taking out the golden ape. The apes stopped fighting after he went down."

"You don't have to do the quest, you can just let me do the quest and if it looks like I'm going to die, you can step in and save me. Deal?" He asks, sticking out his hand to shake Kirito's. Thinking on it for a moment, Kirito places his hand in Inataro's.

"Just so you know, I was level thirty before I took that quest. It was hard."

"All RPG's are hard. I have to be at me maximum level before I can even think of fighting the last boss. Come on, Kirito, I'm the one who won't get to play tomorrow. Let me fight the monkeys."

"You'll lose the moment you enter their lair."

"Silly Kirito," Inataro laughs, patting his head. "Games aren't about winning or losing, their supposed to be about having fun and feeling like you're a different person when you play."

"Alright," Kirito sighs. "As long as you're okay with losing horribly, I can't stop you."

Walking around the town, the two look for the character able to give them directions.

"Why does he always change spots?" Inataro sighs. "Why can't he just stay in one spot? It would be so much easier."

Shrugging, Kirito points to the guy, waving at to people who disappear in front of him. Turning to face Kirito and Inataro, he smiles. "Welcome players!" he grins. "I have a list of missions for you, would you like to chose one?"

"Chasing the Golden Ape," Kirito says monotonously.

"Good choice!" the man grins. "In your inventory is your map. Good luck players!"

"Let's go," Kirito says, turning around and leading the way.

oOo

"Why do they keep showing up?!" Inataro demands, slicing the head off a giant, green praying mantis. After entering the lair of the Golden Ape, they were faced with battle upon battle, and, like Kirito promised, he let Inataro do most of he fighting.

Now standing back to back, Kirito shrugs. "I told you it was hard."

"It's not hard," Inataro growls. "It's just annoying."

"Yeah?" Kirito questions, using his sword's power to slice through the Mantis, it disappearing in blue lights. "Then explain why I'm fighting right now."

"You saw that I was having the most fun and joined in." Inataro chuckles, destroying the Mantis.

Standing back to back once more, the two breathe heavily as they look around wearily. "I think it's over," Kirito mumbles, just as a giant screen appears before the two teens. Reading it, it says:

Result

EXP 220

Col 250

Items 0

"This is better EXP than the Sesa," Inataro laughs, stretching his arms. "What were those things? They looked like praying mantises."

"I think the technical name is Killer Mantis," Kirito scratches his head. "But I don't know. In most MMORPG games, they create new kinds of creatures. SAO is known for mixing in creatures of every other adventure MMORPG games, so giant paying mantises was what they wanted in their game. They are cool looking though." He sighs. "Well, let's go. We still have a long way to go to get to the Golden Ape."


	2. Chapter 2

**The character in this chapter belongs to Fairy-L-Tail. She helped write the next chapter and she edited what I sent her before the story was made. She calls it short but it's longer than what I write. Please read and review. **

oOo

On the other side of town, far from the quest Inataro and Kirito had taken, a hooded figure is thrown up against the wall of a nearby shop, knocking over boxes and people as they are pushed. Sliding down the wall, the hooded person looks up at the group of people who had shoved them out of the way. Noticing them to be in a silver coloured suit of armour, the person groans and gets to their feet, brushing off their cloak.

"Well, well, well," one of the men taunt, sauntering over to the person. "If it isn't our most favourite person in the whole world?"

Scoffing, they try to move past them, but is stopped when a sword is pointed to their throat. "How about I run you through and take all your items?"

Another, pointing a sword at their neck, smirks. "We're surprised really, to see you in such a game as this. Why change over to SAO? Wasn't it enough to make a fool out of everyone in the last game you played? Wasn't it be be number one in that game?"

"What if we just took down your hood?" the last of the men taunt, his armour almost blinding the person. "See the coward hiding behind it."

Tilting their head to the side, they speak, their voice soft but powerful. "Coward?" they question. Reaching to their sword, they lightly push out the hilt, and in the blink of an eye, all of the men lay on the ground, their health slowly dropping. "I am no coward." Letting the sword fall into it's sheath, they walk out of the alleyway, smiling at the sight of all the people. "Let's play."

oOo

Sitting on the highest beam in the restaurant of a nearby town, they listen into the conversations below them. Though, when shoes appear in their peripheral vision, they shake their head and continue to listen in.

"Hey," they greet sitting down beside them. He, allowing his features to be seen, has long blue hair tied up into a high pony-tail, his bangs over-lapping a black head band. Wearing a white shirt, a black jacket with silver trimming that ends at his knees, black pants, and white boots, he grins at them. "I'm surprised to see you here."

"You knew I would show up sooner or later," they shake their head.

"Oh come on, quit being mysterious," he grins pulling down their hood. "You look as beautiful as ever."

"Shut the hell up," she mutters, rolling her eyes and looking away. This girl, with long white hair has an ombre effect, making it switch from white at the top of her head, and fading into pitch black at the bottom. With blue eyes hidden mostly by the snow coloured bangs, she has full lips that scrunch in the themselves as she tries to hide a smile. "We both know that you say that to every girl you meet online, even if they aren't girls," she chuckles.

"Okay," he begins, his tone frustrated. "That was one time, it was a mistake, let it go." Chuckling, she shakes her head. "Kat! Please!"

"Only if you promise to leave me alone tomorrow," she threatens.

"Why? What's happening tomorrow?"

"I told you," she sighs. "Seven times."

"I wasn't listening."

"Of course not," she rolls her eyes.

"Okay, well, tell me again. I'll listen."

Shaking her head, she stands up on the beam. Putting two fingers together, she scrolls down in front of her body, opening up the menu. "Leave me alone tomorrow, and I'll let it go. Later JJ."

Logging out, Kat closes her eyes and let's herself be transported.

0Oo

When she opens her eyes, Kat pulls the Nerve Gear off her head and slowly sits up on her bed, letting her long brown hair fall over her shoulders. Getting up quietly from the bed, it creaking under her as she shifts in movement, Kat slowly tiptoes over to her door, placing her ear to it as she listens to the footsteps of her younger brothers and sisters enter their rooms and turn out the lights. Finally hearing the loud footsteps of her mother enter her room, Kat smiles as she darts over to her backpack, pulls out a pair of shoes, slips on her jacket and runs to her door again. Peaking through the crack as the light turns out, Kat pulls on her backpack and opens her door quietly. Entering the hallway, she closes her door silently behind her, and quietly walks down the hall and down the stairs. Freezing when the floorboards creek under her foot, she hears the voice of her mother.

"What was that?"

"Probably nothing, just go to sleep. It's an old house."

"Fine."

Smiling, Kat finishes her trek on the stairs and walks into the living room, only to be stopped when she bumps into the chest of her older brother, who caught her walking down the stair.

"And," he drawls. "What are you up to?"

Stepping away from him, Kat shifts her backpack on her shoulders and doesn't meet his gaze. "Nothing," drawls, looking anywhere but his face.

"Oh contraire mon ami," he waves a finger in her face. "You were doing something Katrina, spill."

"I was doing no such thing. Just walking around, with a bag on my back, y'know, the usual." She grins at him.

"Mom and Dad wake up at five, they get out of bed at six, and come downstairs at seven, the demons hot on their heels. This has been their schedule for years, and it won't change for one night. Oh, and dad is a light sleeper. Good luck." He pats her on the head before disappearing into the basement, closing the door behind him.

Smiling, Kat walks over to the door, grabs her set of keys, and runs out of the house and down the street. Turning left when she comes to the end, she begins to slow her pace. Though it's extremely dark outside, the street lights guide her way. Coming to a stop at a small, broken down building, she sighs.

Walking in, she makes her way past the empty shelves, the litter of cans on the ground, and hops over the desk. Now, having a door in front of her, she knock on it three times, and whistles a slow tune. Watching the door open, JJ stands there, his face angry.

Unlike his character in SAO, he has short, messy black hair, and eye covered by large glasses. Wearing a baggy shirt with the faded words "GENIJ", a forgotten language in the place where the two live, Kat enters the room and puts her bag down. Looking back to him, she looks at his track pants, rolled up to his knees, and socks that he seems to drown in.

"You're are and were late toady," he mumbles walking over to his computer when he sits down in the large chair. "What's up with you? And why won't you tell me what's going on tomorrow?"

"The brats didn't go to bed 'til late," Kat shrugs, sitting down on his bed, crossing her legs. "Not my fault. Besides, I got into some trouble with the guys from one of the Knight Guilds."

"Oh?" he questions, turning his back to her and typing away on his computer. "What did you do now?"

"You remember that game? Knights of Legends Passed?" Kat questions, looking down at her nails, frowning at the length of them. "Well, I use the same username for everything, right? And they recognized me and wanted to know what my deal was being in SAO. Like, excuse me? No. Not their business."

"Well," JJ trails off, turning back to her. "You are unusually good."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Kat mutters, pouting slightly.

"You're insanely good at these RPG games, Kat. And I'm not just saying that because your imagination scares me most of the time, but because you are too good." JJ chuckles.

"I just work differently than all you people, besides, I'm awesome." She grins. "Now, what are we doing tonight?"

"Ah," JJ grins. "Pizza's in the corner, grab a chair and join me."

After getting a few slices of pizza, Kat drags a chair over to JJ and sits down beside him, one leg folded underneath her. "Now, put this in dumb people terms because I don't understand what you talk about when you go full geek."

Chuckling, JJ nods. "As I was rooting around through SAO with my, oh so amazing, technology powers, I found that the game relies on one source; the final boss. No one has figured out what it is yet, and we, that's you and me my friend, are going to figure it out, and defeat him."

"Sounds easy enough," Kat nods, taking a bite of her pizza. "But that's not it, is there?"

"No," JJ shakes his head. Scrolling over to another window, he pulls up the screen, making Kat grin and smile at JJ.

"Is that what I think it is?" she smiles widely.

"Oh yes," JJ nods, leaning back. "What are you going to do about it?"

"Let's have a little fun," she grins, scrolling the mouse over and clicking on one picture in particular.

oOo

"Taro!" Kirito warns, dodging out of the way. "Left!"

"Yup!" Inataro shouts back, rolling out of the way as the Golden Ape's hands smash into the ground where he once stood. After defeating the Mantises, the two teen boys ran into more Sesa, ogres, and Pixies; who were all a pain to get rid of. Finally getting to the boss room, the two boys worked together to defeat all of the lower-ranked apes, only leaving the Golden Ape left.

Now standing side by side, the two nod at each other. "Let's do this," Kirito grins.

"Right," Inataro nods, reaching for his sword, but his eyes widen in surprise when nothing rests on his back. "What the hell," he mutters, looking over his shoulder and down at his hands. "Where did my sword go?"

"Taro!" Kirito shouts, pushing him out of the way. "What the hell! Pay attention!"

"Sorry," he rolls his eyes. "Hey, did you see where my sword went?"

"No," Kirito shakes his head. "You don't have it with you?"

"It was in the sheath, but now it's gone..." he mutters.

With a white light appearing in front of him, a bouquet of flowers appears with a note reading **_'Thanks for the sword – K'_.**

"What?!" Taro shouts, his eyes wide.

oOo

"That was mean," JJ shakes his head. "You took that kid's sword and put it in your own inventory. It's not even a good one."

"Are you on something?" Kat blinks in surprise. "That is the Honed Bronze Spellblade! It's really rare to get, and it boosts your attack power by fifty percent! It's durability lasts for like – ever! You can only get it if you defeat the Sesa King in the Golden Ape quest, but he's super rare and really hard to find. Plus it looks cool, so I wanted it."

"What is he comes and demands for it back?" JJ questions. "If it's as amazing as you say, what'll happen when he finds outs?"

"Relax," Kat chuckles, patting JJ on the head. "It's SAO, there are millions of players worldwide. He won't find me. And, even if he does, I'm not going to give it back. It's a glitch in the game, and you, my computer genius friend, found it and I took advantage of it. This is why we're such a good team."

Walking over to her pack, she slips it on her shoulders and smiles at JJ. "Oh, and I put something in your inventory too. Later dude! Don't bother me tomorrow!"

"What's happening tomorrow?!" JJ cries, but Kat doesn't answer as she runs home, a huge smile on her face.

oOo

"What?!" Inataro exclaims for a second time as he stays frozen and watches Kirito finish off the Golden Ape with ease.

"What happened?" Kirito questions as he walks over to Inataro and helps him up. With the stats appearing behind them, Kirito has to hold back a chuckle at Inataro's face.

"Someone just stole my sword," he gapes, tears brimming in his eyes.

"Can't you just... get a different one?" Kirito questions.

"Are you kidding me?!" Inataro cries. "That was the Honed Bronze Spellblade! It's really rare to get, and it boosts your attack power by fifty percent! It's durability lasts for like – ever! You can only get it if you defeated the Sesa King in the Golden Ape quest, but he's super rare and really hard to find, which I did when your back was turned! Plus it looks cool, so I wanted to keep it!"

"So?" Kirito questions. "Do it again."

Grumbling under his breath, Inataro grips the note in his hand. Lifting up the page in front of his face, Inataro sighs. "Well, I guess I have to find this 'K' person and see what their deal is. Will you join me?"

"Didn't you say that this was the last time you could come on in a while?" Kirito smirks.

"We can start tonight," Inataro shakes his head. "And when I come back, we can pick up where we left off. Are you with me on this?"

"I have nothing better to do," Kirito shrugs. "Come on, we should start now," he says, walking away from the lair of the Golden Ape. "Do you want to find your sword or not?"

Running after Kirito, Inataro turns his head and looks at the stats.

EXP 1, 500

Col 350

Items 3

Congratulations, Players!

Shaking his head, Inataro turns back around and walks with Kirito out of the building.

"So," Kirito begins. "Any idea where to start?"

"Not a clue," Inataro mutters.


	3. Chapter 3

**This third chapter was written with the help of EpsilonPanda and of course finished with the help of EpsilonPanda. Thank you and enjoy this third chapter after the long wait. **

XXX

"Remind me again why we're looking for this 'Kat' person?" Inataro sighed.

"Simple," Kikiro started. "I know her in real world and she's quite an excellent player. We wouldn't have any trouble completing quests if she joins our party. Some even say she's the best player. She hates real world and spends any free time she has in the virtual world. She was the first to end my duel-winning spree," he said, staring out into the sky. "If we party with her, you'll actually get good at this game.' Kikiro laughed at the joke he had just made.

The two players search all night in any location Kat could be found in, but to no avail.

They were on around the 15th floor, walking around a cave's entrance, trying to find any trace of the player Kikiro had described.

"Wait," Kikiro murmured, holding his hand up, stopping Inataro. Kikiro stood there, listening intently. As Inataro stood there, confused, he heard it to. There were soft voices from the cave. A girl's voice echoed through it, and Kikiro's eyes widened. He rushed into the cave, shouting back to him.

"It's Kat's voice!" Kikiro shouted. Inataro followed, not knowing what to say for feel. They sprinted through the cave, turning corners and jumping down stairs, until they reached three players. One was holding a one-handed sword, the other man was a fat, brown hair hammer wielder, and the other was a female knife-user and beast tamer.

The three turned towards Inataro and Kikiro, their weapons drawn. The beast tamer had imitated Kat's voice, and was the first to attack. She leapt at us, slashing with her blade. It sliced through Inataro's arm, slightly lowering his health. Kikiro jumped in front of Inataro, his blade pushing the knife to the side and slashing at the beast tamer. The person's health drained by nearly a quarter, and the hammer guy moved forward. He raised the hammer over his head, slamming it down on the ground. Inataro side stepped and pulled his blade into the person. The player flew backwards, landing on his back. Inataro walked up to him and used a Vertical sword skill on the man, apologizing repeatedly.  
The two other people exploded into light particles, some of their money and items dropping. The man Inataro was attacking had also died, with a respawn counter appearing where his body was.

"Think they're okay?" Inataro asked.

"Of course they're fine," Kikiro replied, slapping his back. "They're just avatars. They're probably sitting on their beds, cursing us out." The two friends laughed.

Inataro's laughing died out as he looked at the time. "I have to logout," he murmured.

"Right now?"

"Yeah, it's six thirty. I have to get ready for school and feed the dog," he replied in a depressed tone.

"Aah, forgot you didn't like dogs. Anyway, next time you're online, come find me and we'll go on a quest together!"

"You got it, man," Inataro replied, giving him a thumbs up as he hit the log out button.

Three months had passed since Kikiro and Inataro started looking for Kat. The two found no leads, and no one they talked to even knew where she was.

Inataro walked out of the school building, sighing and tossing his book bag over his right shoulder. As he walked out of the building, someone called to him.

"Hey, you're Inataro, right?!" a boy a little older than him cried out, running up to him.

"Um, y-yeah," Inataro replied, confused. He looked the boy up and down, recognizing his face. "You're Kirito!"

Kirito leaned in and whispered, "Please, call me Kirigaya." He stood back up and laughed. "I didn't even know we went to the same school. Anyway, now that school's over, you'll get to play again," he said. Inataro nodded.

"It's going to be great. How many hours will I need to play to catch up with you?" Inataro jokingly asked. "Five thousand hours maybe?"

Kirito shot air out of his mouth, making a little puh, sound, then chuckling. "More like seven thousand!" He slapped Inataro on the back. "Anyway, don't go dying before I get in, I wanna duel and party with ya!" Kirito walked away toward his motorcycle and waved as he slipped on his helmet.

I chuckled and stepped forward. As I walked toward the street, I closed my eyes, thinking about SAO. As he stepped past the gate, he collided with a person, stepping back a little bit.

"Sorry, I wasn't watching where I was going," Inataro said looking up at the person. The guy in front of him was around Kirito's height and age. His black hair formed two tufts on the sides of this head, looking like cat ears. He raised his left hand, and smiled.

"Don't you worry about it," he said. "I'm Taniguchi Mizu. Nice to meet you." His face looked incredibly familiar, and Inataro's eyes widened, staring at the guy's face.

"You're-"

"Kame? Form SAO? You're right," he said, grinning.

"Oh!" Inataro said, realizing he didn't introduce himself. "I'm Inataro! I fellow player of the new SAO!" he shouted, bowing deeply.

"Well, since you're in the new SAO, we should party up some time," he said. Inataro nodded and smiled. "Anyway, my friend's waiting for me," he said, walking off. Inataro turned around, watching him walk, seeing that his right arm never moved from its current position. He walked up to a black haired girl, pecking her lips.

Inataro smiled, walking home.

Inataro stood in the center of some town, waiting for Kirito.

"Man, where is he?" Inataro muttered. I told him to meet me here, and he hasn't shown up." He checked his menu, seeing Kirito still offline. A few minutes passed, and Inataro gave up waiting. "Meh, I can still play without him," Inataro said to himself, staring toward a forest. The monsters are just cows in this floor. It'll be easy!"

Inataro stood there, panting with his sword in front of him. The cow that he was fighting was nearly dead, but Inataro's health was almost in the red-zone. As the cow charged, Inataro sprinted at the monster, spinning and slashing, leaving a large cut in the side of the monster. The cow expanded and exploded into light. A purple screen appeared, displaying the experience and items dropped. As he hit the accept button, another screen appeared.

**Level Up!**

Inataro jumped, shouting. "Awesome! Only seventy-five more levels until I catch up to Kirito!" he shouted. As he hit the accept button, he heard the grass rustle, behind him. He took a step closer to the noise.

A large silhouette appeared from behind a tree. The monster stepped toward Inataro, slashing upwards with a large, bone blade. It drained Inataro's health, putting it near zero, and flinging him into a tree. Inataro sat there, holding his hands out in front of him.

"Don't come any closer!" he shouted. As he closed his eyes, the monster readied its weapon. I quickly brought it down towards Inataro, but no pain was felt.

Inataro opened one eye, seeing a woman standing in front of him, light particles emerging from where the monster once stood.

"Looks like today's your lucky day," she said, grinning. She held her hand out, and helped him up. "My name is Seraphim," she said. "Actually, I'm going to rule this world, so you might as well start calling me 'your majesty' or 'Queen Seraphim'," she said, laughing and standing proud, her hands on her hips.

"I'm Inataro, and I don't care for your name; I never asked. Now, if you'll just stand there, I'll recover my HP and be on my way," Inataro growled, trying to intimidate her.

"I'm just surprised you were able to survive an attack from that Furious Boarman," she said, staring down at him. "Most players your level would be destroyed from its starting attack. You're lucky, but this isn't the only monster you have to worry about." Inataro looked up at her, confused. "If you continue forward, a group of harpies will swoop down and attack you. In the west of the floor is a Minotaur, and to the south is a whole army of hob goblins. If you want to make it back to the town alive, you'll have to come with me."

He looked away, running through his options, and glanced back at Seraphim. He smile was enticing, and he couldn't help but accept her offer.

Seraphim had helped Inataro make it back to the safe zone with ease.

"Thanks for helping me," Inataro whispered, upset that he needed someone else's help.

"No problem," she replied. "I know hard this game can be to master. Anyway, since we're here. Let's go get a drink," she said.

"Drink?"

"At the tavern, duh," she replied, flicking his forehead and grabbing his hand.

Seraphim held up her mug, swirling the liquid around. Inataro sat there, staring at the light tan liquid in his mug. Seraphim sighed.

"You know what I like about virtual reality games? The beer. Everyone knows that beer is bad. That's why kids come here to have a beer and know they aren't going to get in trouble. If they would have beer IRL, they would lose balance, have trouble making quick decisions, and basically have a horrible time. I have enough money to pay for something that tastes like the real thing and does nothing to your body," she said, grinning. Inataro chugged down his drink and stared at her.

"Do you think you could help me?" he asked.

"Don't think I'm just going to let you leave. I'm not a newbie. I know that low level characters who ask for help are either spammers or working together for bigger characters to steal my money."

"I'm not any of those!" he shouted, staring at her. "My friend Kikiro said you were a really good gamer, so I thought you might be able to help me on a few quests!"

"Wait, you know Kikiro?" she asked. "He's a good friend, but I didn't know he was looking for me. Anyway, if he wanted help on a quest, he should've just asked me himself!"

"Well-"

Inataro was interrupted by a yelling from outside. The door of the tavern slammed open and the whole place went silent. I large man stood at the entrance, panting.

"What's wrong?" the man at the counter asked the man.

"Haven't any of you opened your menus?" the man yelled. They all shook their heads. It all started with Inataro. He swiftly slid his left hand down the center of his vision, opening his menu. As he scrolled down, tapping every icon, his eyes widened.

"No," he muttered. "It can't be."

"What is it?!" Seraphim yelled, peering over Inataro's shoulder, but went silent as soon as she saw the problem. At the bottom of the menu, there was no "log out" button. There was no way to escape.

Seraphim fell back into her chair and sat there, shocked. Everyone in the tavern followed their actions, opening their menu.

A minute passed, and the whole tavern broke out in madness. Players, now flooded out of the tavern, screaming and pulling out their weapons. They pushed people out of the way, running to wherever they felt safe. Inataro and Seraphim sat silent in the tavern, along with the bar tender.

Seraphim quickly stood up, her chair falling over. She quickly opened up her menu, calling a game master.

"Yes, how may I help you?" the game master asked.

"Alright, what the hell is this?!" she yelled.

"What do you mean, ma'am?" the game master replied.

"I think you know what I mean?! Locking in this game?!"

"I do not know what you are talking about," he said.

"Yeah, right! You know damn well what I'm talking about! Millions of players are trapped due to your game! Let me talk to the sick, twisted bastar that did this!" she yelled. A couple seconds passed, and she closed her menu, cursing and slamming her fist into the table.

~End of the Chapter~


	4. Chapter 4

**This fourth chapter was written with the help of EpsilonPanda. We both like this chapter, an author can always feel pride with his or her work, but if you don't like it don't be afraid to review it. I'm just glad this story has reached a fourth chapter. **

XXX

As the players in the bar sat in silence, one was engulfed in a bright, white light disappearing. Player after player was engulfed in the same light. As the bar started to glow, Kat backed into a corner, unsheathing her weapon. Inataro followed her example, backing next to her. The shouting from outside died down into silence. Kat and Inataro stood there, confused, dropping their swords to their sides.

As their guard was let down, the two were surrounded by light.

The light faded, the vision of the bar no longer there. Around them, all the players stood, staring up at a floating figure. The figure was wearing a cloak that blocked its face. White gloves sat on its hands that were held out to its sides.

"Hello, players of Sword Art Online," the figure announced.

"It's a game master!" someone shouted. Inataro glanced over at Kat, who stood there, her jaw clenched.

"This game, as you may know, had the ability for you to respawn and log out. However, as of a few minutes ago, you cannot. Sword Art Online will return to its roots of a game in which you are trapped. When you die, there is no respawn; you will die in real life. Enjoy beating this game. Good luck, players," the game master said, disappearing.

"Hey, come back!" Inataro shouted. "How're we going to beat this?!"

"Simple," Kat said, not looking up. "We're making it to floor 100 and beating the final boss."

Inataro stood there, still in shock of the fact that he was stuck inside the game. As the square broke out in chaos, much like the events a couple years ago. Kat and Inataro stood there, Kat waiting from a response for the scared Inataro.

"If you want, I'll party with you for a while, helping you level up," Kat said reluctantly.

"You would do that?" he asked. Kat looked down at Inataro, knowing how being scared felt. It was the least she could do.

"Yeah," she said, forcing a smile. She walked into the field outside the town, Inataro closely behind. She quickly made her way to the town of Tolbana to clear the first dungeon.

A few days passed of Kat teaching Inataro how to raid dungeons and how to get better at combat.

Kat and Inataro had just walked back into the town of Tolbana when they spotted a group of players heading out into the forest. Kat ran up and asked what was going on.

"A group of players are heading to face the boss," he said. He walked back to the party, and Kat looked over at Inataro, grinning.

"Ready for your first boss fight?" she asked. He swallowed, and slowly nodded.

The party stood in front of the large, stone doors, waiting for the leader to open them. Inataro stood there, shaking, while Kat tapped her foot impatiently.

"Are you ready, men?" the leader asked, turned around. Everyone shouted in agreement, raising their swords. The doors slowly swung open, revealing long boss room of [Illfang the Kobold Lord].

The group ran in, forming a crescent in the room, closing in on Illfang. As the red, giant demon near the group, Inataro started to shake, his armor rattling. Kat put her arm on his shoulder, holding him in place.

"You'll be fine," she said. "This fight will be done in no later than an hour." He smiled at her, and nodded, swallowing his fear.

The group broke into three groups. Two dealt with the minions spawning around them, and one dealt with Illfang.

Inataro yelled, starting to run up to the boss and charge a sword skill. As his blade emitted a solid, bright blue light, he let his sword swing through the boss's knee, bringing the health down a small amount. As Inataro charged another sword skill, Illfang turned, raising his axe above his head and bringing it down on Inataro. As the axe nearly collided with his skill, Kat jumped in front of him, blocking and repelling the axe, giving Inataro the time to land the Horizontal sword skill.

Inataro jumped out of Illfang's range, feeling weightless. He felt at one with his blade, and his motions felt natural. He was in the zone. He rushed up to the boss with some other party members, uleashing a fury of sword skills, draining his first and second health bar.

As the health turned red on the third and final bar of health, the monster roared. Kat stood up as Illfang crouched down, throwing his axe.

"Everyone, watch it! His attack pattern is changing!" she shouted. "It's just like the original fight in SAO!"

The whole party jumped back, out of range of Illfang. As the members stopped attacking, Illfang grabbed a weapon behind him. It was a large sword with a notch in the top, the same weapon from the first fight of the public release.

Illfang rushed at the party, quickly swinging at them. Inataro, Kat, and a few others managed to duck, but the others weren't so lucky. A few groups of ten flew backways, slamming into their walls, their health dropping to the red zone.

"Men, heal up!" someone shouted. "Those who are able to attack, we're almost finished with him!"

Kat sprinted up in front of the party, her sword at the ready. Illfang rose his blade above his head, and began to bring it down toward her head. As the blade neared Kat's body, Inataro rushed in, holding his sword up. Sparks flew behind him, the boss's blade stopped by his blade.

Kat looked at him out of the corner of her eye, nodding to him as a "thanks". She activated [Horizontal Square]. She danced around the boss, making slashes at him, carving a square out of a light blue light. The boss paused, and a square extended out from Illfang, shattering. The boss stood there, slowly regaining his senses.

Inataro looked up, seeing Illfang's heath one hit away. He looked to Kat for permission, and she nodded. He ran up to Illfang, activating [Snake Bite], quickly striking at the boss from the left, and bringing the blade back in from the right.

The boss's health bar disappeared, and the boss shattered into shards of light. "Congratulations!" Appeared in the center of the room as the rainbow of light reverted to the grey stone of the dungeon. Inataro fell back, panting, and Kat knelt down next to him.

"Good job, out there," she said, peering over his shoulder, seeing the Last Attacking Bonus appear.

"Ill-Cleaver?" Inataro asked. He hit accept on the LA screen and looked at his "Combat Rewards", seeing a level up notification twice. Inataro quickly opened the menu and accessed the equipment screen, equipping the cleaver.

A large cleaver, similar to that of Illfang's materialized in his right hand. He rotated it around staring at the small indentations of the blade, and admiring the grey color with the white and red handle. He grinned and chuckled.

Kat stood up and started up the stars, Inataro close on her heels. She gestured to the door, "Would you like to do the honors?"

He smiled and nodded, placing a hand against the door. She shoved it open, the noise of rock scraping rock echoing through the dungeon. As the doors finished swinging open, he revealed the open plains of Floor 2.

Cow-type monsters grazed in the plains, and farmer NPC's of the nearest village tilled their fields. A great big smile broke out over his face, and he took off running toward the first town. Kat followed, a slight feeling of happiness coming over.

Kat and Inataro sat in a small restaurant, waiting for their meals.

"You think you're ready for the next couple floors?" Kat asked.

"I-I think so," he said. "I'm pretty sure I can manage everything," he started, but looked down at his hands. "B-but, can you stay with me for a while to make sure?"

Kat sat there for a while, thinking about it. She nodded, accepting his request. "But once you feel like you're ready to go out on your own, just let me know," she said, pointing at him with her fork as the food arrived.

"You got it," he replied, smiling. Inataro picked up his fork and stabbed into a slap of meat.

The fact he was just partying with Kat was just one of the main gameplay elements of a MMORPG, not just using someone.

Days went past, Kat and Inataro training in the fields and going into dungeons. Inataro was a quick learning, mastering the combat system within those few days.

A group of players, fighting on the front lines had cleared the second floor insanely fast, only losing one or two people in the boss fight. The players were on a role, for right now anyway.

Inataro couldn't have gotten to the level he was at now without Kat's help. He thought of her as the descendent of a strong warrior. People could barely land a hit on her and she always slashed a creature so hard it split in the middle.

Inataro felt confident, more confident in himself that he's ever felt before, thanks to Kat. He joined in on the front lines for floors 4 and 5, along with Kat.

Inataro and Kat sat at a table, eating in silence. Inataro took a bite out of the steak he was given, and Kat gulped down the rest of her drink. As Kat slammed down her glass, the door to the restaurant slammed open, heavily armored men filing into the building.

"All men and women who can fight, there is a boss fight happening in three hours. Meet up on the outskirts of town!"

The people in the restaurant stared in silence as the men walked out of the building and headed to the next. Inataro looked back at Kat, grinning, and Kat nodded. The two quickly stood up, paying the cashier and sprinting out of the building to prepare.

~  
"Do you think I'm at a high enough level that I can trade the stuff I have for something a little more up in your level?" Inataro asked Kat. He knew she was much higher up in the levels than him but he couldn't stop himself from asking that question.

Kat took a while to answer, scratching her jawline. "Maybe," she said. "Depends on the person. Some people would be willing to, depending on your stuff and the item you're trading for."

"I'll probably just ask around a bit," Inataro said to himself, raising his arms above his head. The two stopped by the outskirts of town, waiting for the group that was arriving soon.

The group had arrived and immediately departed toward a dungeon in a small canyon.

Like most dungeons in a game this one had a scary but also very humorous name. Inataro was the one who had absolutely no idea what the canyon was called, but he was sure with a group there were no monsters who could kill him.

They walked through the dungeons and found a small entrance leading into a large wall.

"This is the entrance!" the leader shouted, waving them into a dungeon. Kat and the others followed, Inataro right next to Kat, his hand gripping the one-handed sword he carried. As they walked through the dungeon, not many monsters attacked, but occasionally a small bat would swoop down or a rock elemental would point at them, staring. They made it through the dungeon relatively quickly, and found themselves at the large boss doors. The group opened the doors and flooded into the room, it lighting up with a dirt-like color.

When it came to bosses they always liked to start their battles from a faraway distance Kat found. She could see this room was a land and water based room. Slaying the digital enemies would be more difficult if they were inside the water pond inside the room.

Two groups of three monsters spawned int. They were merman wielding rather large tridents. The two groups rushed at the party, their tridents at the ready. The leader of the group took the first step.

As the monsters were nearing the party, he took one step forward and slashed the three, slicing right through them with his great sword.

"Finish off the small monsters, then head for the boss!"

The party quickly took out the monsters and walked up to the small lake in the back of the room. As they stood there, a shadow emerged from the bottom of the lake. As it neared the surface, the water began to bubble and steam.

The boss jumped from the water, landing on its legs behind us. It was a humanoid shape, put with a small fish's head.

Inataro was ready to fight the humanoid fish thing but he had no idea if it was easy or hard. The best thing he could do was let Kat do it by herself, but he always knew there were times he would get in a girls' way.

He quickly mustered up all his courage and rushed into the fight behind Kat. He flipped his one-handed sword over his wrist and slashed at the boss. He glanced at the green bar that was its health, watching it slowly decrease, pixel by pixel. He grunted, and used a Vertical Sword Skill on the boss's knee. The blade sliced through half the monster's knee, shattering its scales.

Kat had jumped off a party member's shoulders, flipping and using a higher level sword skill on the boss. She chunked its health, the green bar turning yellow by her single hit.

Inataro was of roaring with courage after seeing the exquisiteness of Kat's sword moves. It took skill to reach a powerful level in SAO and Kat was one of the few players who knew how to do it.

The group slashed away at the boss, dodging its swipes and beams of chilled water. The pattern didn't change, just the attacks got harder.

As the monster's health entered the red zone of the last health bar, the monster turned toward Inataro and Kat. The boss swiped, and broke through Inataro's parry. The claw slammed into his shoulder, sending him flying into Kat, throwing both of them into a wall. Inataro jumped up, and ran at the monster, his health remaining the yellow zone.

"Inataro, get back!" Kat yelled as he charged a Rage Spike. The boss swiped at him.

Inataro ducked, spinning around and unleashing the sword skill. Inataro leaped upwards, flying over the boss. As her flipped, he pulled his sword upwards, landing a strike on the fin of the boss.

Inataro landed on the other side, the boss growing and shattering behind him.


	5. Chapter 5

**First I thank EpilsonPanda for helping me write this chapter and hope it's too your liking. I'm also very glad to make it to the fifth chapter even if I needed help to do so. **

XXX

"You got it," he replied, smiling. Inataro picked up his fork and stabbed into a slap of meat.

The fact he was just partying with Kat was just one of the main gameplay elements of a MMORPG, not just using someone.

Days went past, Kat and Inataro training in the fields and going into dungeons. Inataro was a quick learning, mastering the combat system within those few days.

A group of players, fighting on the front lines had cleared the second floor insanely fast, only losing one or two people in the boss fight. The players were on a role, for right now anyway.

Inataro couldn't have gotten to the level he was at now without Kat's help. He thought of her as the descendent of a strong warrior. People could barely land a hit on her and she always slashed a creature so hard it split in the middle. Inataro felt confident, more confident in himself that he's ever felt before, thanks to Kat. He joined in on the front lines for floors 4 and 5, along with Kat.

Inataro and Kat sat at a table, eating in silence. Inataro took a bite out of the steak he was given, and Kat gulped down the rest of her drink. As Kat slammed down her glass, the door to the restaurant slammed open, heavily armored men filing into the building.

"All men and women who can fight, there is a boss fight happening in three hours. Meet up on the outskirts of town!"

The people in the restaurant stared in silence as the men walked out of the building and headed to the next. Inataro looked back at Kat, grinning, and Kat nodded. The two quickly stood up, paying the cashier and sprinting out of the building to prepare.

"Do you think I'm at a high enough level that I can trade the stuff I have for something a little more up in your level?" Inataro asked Kit. He knew she was much higher up in the levels than him but he couldn't stop himself from asking that question.

Kat took a while to answer, scratching her jawline. "Maybe," she said. "Depends on the person. Some people would be willing to, depending on your stuff and the item you're trading for."

"I'll probably just ask around a bit," Inataro said to himself, raising his arms above his head. The two stopped by the outskirts of town, waiting for the group that was arriving soon.

The group had arrived and immediately departed toward a dungeon in a small canyon.

Like most dungeons in a game this one had a scary but also very humorous name. Inataro was the one who had absolutely no idea what the canyon was called, but he was sure with a group there were no monsters who could kill him. They walked through the dungeons and found a small entrance leading into a large wall.

"This is the entrance!" the leader shouted, waving them into a dungeon. Kat and the others followed, Inataro right next to Kat, his hand gripping the one-handed sword he carried. As they walked through the dungeon, not many monsters attacked, but occasionally a small bat would swoop down or a rock elemental would point at them, staring. They made it through the dungeon relatively quickly, and found themselves at the large boss doors. The group opened the doors and flooded into the room, it lighting up with a dirt-like color.

When it came to bosses they always liked to start their battles from a faraway distance Kat found. She could see this room was a land and water based room. Slaying the digital enemies would be more difficult if they were inside the water pond inside the room.

Two groups of three monsters spawned int. They were merman wielding rather large tridents. The two groups rushed at the party, their tridents at the ready. The leader of the group took the first step.

As the monsters were nearing the party, he took one step forward and slashed the three, slicing right through them with his great sword.

"Finish off the small monsters, then head for the boss!"

The party quickly took out the monsters and walked up to the small lake in the back of the room. As they stood there, a shadow emerged from the bottom of the lake. As it neared the surface, the water began to bubble and steam.

The boss jumped from the water, landing on its legs behind us. It was a humanoid shape, put with a small fish's head.  
Inataro was ready to fight the humanoid fish thing but he had no idea if it was easy or hard. The best thing he could do was let Kat do it by herself, but he always knew there were times he would get in a girls' way.

He quickly mustered up all his courage and rushed into the fight behind Kat. He flipped his one-handed sword over his wrist and slashed at the boss. He glanced at the green bar that was its health, watching it slowly decrease, pixel by pixel. He grunted, and used a Vertical Sword Skill on the boss's knee. The blade sliced through half the monster's knee, shattering its scales.

Kat had jumped off a party member's shoulders, flipping and using a higher level sword skill on the boss. She chunked its health, the green bar turning yellow by her single hit.

Inataro was of roaring with courage after seeing the exquisiteness of Kat's sword moves. It took skill to reach a powerful level in SAO and Kat was one of the few players who knew how to do it.

The group slashed away at the boss, dodging its swipes and beams of chilled water. The pattern didn't change, just the attacks got harder.

As the monster's health entered the red zone of the last health bar, the monster turned toward Inataro and Kat. The boss swiped, and broke through Inataro's parry. The claw slammed into his shoulder, sending him flying into Kat, throwing both of them into a wall. Inataro jumped up, and ran at the monster, his health remaining the yellow zone.

"Inataro, get back!" Kat yelled as he charged a Rage Spike. The boss swiped at him.

Inataro ducked, spinning around and unleashing the sword skill. Inataro leaped upwards, flying over the boss. As her flipped, he pulled his sword upwards, landing a strike on the fin of the boss.

Inataro landed on the other side, the boss growing and shattering behind him.

Inataro sat next to Kat at a small bar, cheering and grinning. They sat in the main bar of the first town of the fourth floor. The third floor boss had gone pretty smoothly, only losing one or two players during the raid. Inataro slowly looked over at Kat, who was with a few other high level players, pumping their mugs into the air, liquid spilling over its sides, falling onto the ground then shattering. As Inataro finished his drink, he slowly headed outside, leaving Kat to her partying. He shoved his hands in his pockets, and walked the small streets of the fourth floor first town.

The moon was high in the sky, the lights in the town shining bright. Inataro, walked to the inn on the edge of town, walking up to his room, and sitting on the side of the bed. He looked over the extensive list of sword skills and non-combat skills, planning on what to level when he wakes up the next day. As he took small notes on his plan, he glanced over it, nodding to himself, then de-equipping his armor. He grinned as he slid under the covers of the rather small bed, and fell asleep.

"Switch!" Inataro shouted, falling back and letting Kat rush in front of him, the monster's guard broken. Kat's short sword glowed a bright blue, illuminating the already aqua color walls. Her sword slammed into the monster, leaving a large gash in its stomach halfway around its body.

"Inataro, finish it off!" she shouted, its health draining to the red zone. Inataro held his sword over his shoulder, it growing a blue a little lighter than Kat's. As he closed the distance between him and the monster, he unleashed his sword skill. He landed an upwards slash, knocking the monster into the air, then jumped after the monster, slamming it down into the ground.

The dust slowly cleared, revealing the expanding figure of a large lizard man. It shattered, and the two sheathed their weapons. "Onto the next section?" Kat asked. Inataro nodded, and they rounded a small corner of the hallway.


	6. Chapter 6

**Bad reviews go to 4fireking while I want all the good reviews to be for EpilsonPanda. This was a risky chapter to write because it's short but still that's better than the sixth chapter never coming out. **

XXX

Inataro parried, knocking the blade out of the Sentinel's hand. The blade clattered to the ground, it's metallic noise echoing through the dungeon. The monster cracked its knuckles as Inataro charged a sword skill.

Inataro brought his sword straight up toward the monster's chest, the monster unleashing a punch toward Inataro. The stone fist grinded against the blade of Inataro's, sparks flying and Inataro loosing balance.

The blade connected, but not well. A curved slash appeared in the monster's chest, and the health slowly drained. The Sentinel's fist slammed into the ground, creating a cloud of dust. Inataro quickly recovered, jumping toward the monster. Inataro stabbed his blade into the Sentinel's back, pulling it out and climbing up its back.

As he stood on the shoulder of the monster, he charged a simple sword skill, jumping off it and releasing the skill. A large slash appeared in it head, and the monster slowly expanded, shattering into shards of light, and a purple screen appearing.

Inataro scanned the battle results and hit the 'accept' button.

He slowly turned around and stared at the small party behind him. Kat walked forward, leading the way, and the others following.

As the party of five walked through the halls of the dungeon of Floor 22, one of the younger, lower level members walked up alongside of Inataro.

"Man, how'd you get so overpowered?" he asked, grinning and staring at Inataro. Inataro looked over and smiled.

"What do you mean?"

"You killed that boss superfast! You must have insanely high stats!"

Inataro stopped, staring at the ground. "It's not a matter of stats," he whispered, still staring at the floor. The party member, looked back at him, confused.

"What is it then?"

Inataro paused for a while, then spoke.

"It's the will to survive."

oOo  
oOo

Inataro flew against the wall of a teal colored dungeon, his health draining into the yellow zone.

He was in a large, circular boss room, a large snake circling the room. The snake lunged at him, his fangs ripping into his arms. As the snake circled around him, constantly attack him, Inataro's health slowly drained, and turned a shade of red.

Inataro laid there on the ground, waiting for the next attack, his vision glowing red.

The boss began sliding around the room, and Inataro closed his eyes, waiting for the pain of death.

In the darkness of his closed eyes, a single vision appeared. It was a familiar house, the name plate on the wall reading the family name of Inataro.

The vision went into the living room of the house, his family sitting around a coffee table, staring at a television. The people seemed to move extremely fast, coming and going from the living room multiple times in seconds, one figure moving upstairs. The vision followed it, zooming into a person sitting at the computer.

It was Inataro, staring at the launch day footage of Sword Art Online.

A feeling of rage built up in Inataro. There was no way he was dying in this game. He was going home.

His eyes shot open, staring at the circular ceiling. He jumped up, seeing the snake attack. He blocked, leaning to one side, sparks flying between his sword and the fangs of the boss. As the boss's head passed him, he jumped forward, unleashing a sword skill right against the boss's neck. The final few inches of health he had drained, the boss shattering.

oOo  
oOo

"Oy! Inataro!" Kat shouted, waving. "Snap out of it!"

Inataro looked up at the waving Kat and smiled.

"Sorry, just thinking about something." He ran, catching up with the party, joining them in continuing to explore the dungeon.


	7. Chapter 7

**Marty the Martian helped beta read this chapter but it was done so well it was like Marty wrote the whole chapter for me. But I wrote the ideas down first so kudos to me. Please read and review. **

XXX

Being a member of an online gaming party could be fun but it could also be very frustrating. Kind of like being stuck in a car on a long journey with someone who only wants to listen to music you don't like or even worse, wants to listen to a personal development audio book. Fortunately for Inataro though, he was having great fun.

At first the party found themselves in a small cave. Inataro thought it was strange because even though he was in an MMORPG, there was something odd about this place. For some strange reason it reminded him of freshly baked pie. A drop from a small ledge slowed the group but fortunately for Inataro, one of the muscular players was there to help him down. The player reminded him of the character Guts from the anime Berserk.

I'm logging off for dinner now but feel free to send stuff anytime and I'll get on to it when I log on. I am usually on at least once a day after work.

But ledge drops and feelings of pie were among the least of his worries; there were of course the monsters who would re-spawn definitely.

While there was still time, Inataro checked the durability stats on his weapon as it had a lot of slashing ahead of it. His hit point bar was full but he knew he would have to avoid taking too much damage if he and his party were going to make it through this level.

The first to appear was a Green Slime monster. It seemed to ignore the others and rushed straight at Inataro.

Moving quickly, the young man jabbed repeatedly at the slime monster, charging the swords strike points. Eventually the weapon began to glow with power enabling Inataro to slice the monster in two.

He may not have been as fast as the others and did not kill as many slime monsters, but Inataro was determined to do his best and play his part.

The party fought on and although the slime monsters kept coming, when their inventories were full, it was time to move on.

"Only two more floors after this one" Kat informed the group.

Inataro tried to keep his nerves steady as the Boss Room drew ever closer. The end Boss Fight of any quest was always the greatest risk and the greatest surprise. A few hits after straying too close to the Boss and it was health gone, game over and player deleted.

But before Inataro and his party could go through that last door, they had to contend with a floor full of Pig-Headed tomahawk wielding warriors bent on halting their progress.

Without hesitation, Kat rushed straight in and decapitated the the lead beast with Inataro following hot on her heels.

He spun around and decapitated the next pig with one sweep of his sword and it exploded into dozens of glittering pixels.

Next thing he knew he was standing back to back with Kat swinging his weapon furiously. Her back felt so smooth and warm, Inataro almost forgot they were inside a full dive virtual reality game.

Another Swine Ogre came at Kat with its axe swinging down upon her. She blocked the attack and jumped simultaneously before drilling her sword deep into the pigs neck.

As she fought, Kat saw another player take down one of the pig monsters nearby; a big player with big brawny muscles and an even bigger axe with a mighty powerful swing.

Inataro didn't want to be a show off but at the same time, he was beginning to feel like he wasn't pulling his weight in this fight. So since none of the Swine Ogre's were really a threat, he tried slashing faster and harder to keep up with Kat and the other players.

"Hey dummy, watch your back!" the big player shouted rudely at Inataro.

In spite of his embarrassment, Inataro was glad the big guy shouted a warning because a Swine Ogre was about to hit him from behind.

He quickly spun around and cut the beast in two, bringing the battle to an end. The party took advantage of the opportunity to head into a safe zone instead of the next floor.

" I think we should wait here until our HP is replenished and more piggies show up" Kat suggested. "This is a great place to get our stats up by sticking around for a while and slaying them."

Time passed slowly very for Inataro as he sat beside Kat in the safe zone. Also it was very tight and uncomfortable with the broad shouldered player squeezed in with them.

" So what brings you to this cave, big guy?" Inataro asked.

" My name is Kiku" he replied "and I am surprised I came here too."

"It's simple really" Inataro said "Kat and I just love adventure."

As the two young men chatted, Kat examined her weapon looking for damage. When she was satisfied, she opened up her inventory to check here item levels.

"Looks good" Kat nodded. "Between the monster drops and what I bought with me, we should have enough health potions for everyone."

With their health levels fully replenished, the three players made there way out of the safety room and towards the stairs. When they arrived on the third floor, they found the room resembled a gigantic bird cage.

As they entered, the group slowly became aware of strange hissing sounds echoing softly throughout the bird cage and when they looked up, they soon discovered where the sound was coming from.

Lowering itself down by a thread, was a massive spider with glistening black fur and six glowing crimson eyes.

Inataro noticed the spider was a level forty-nine Boss Monster. He realized he had never taken on anything so strong before as the players all took a fighting stance and prepared for battle.


	8. Chapter 8

**Marty the Martian helped me for this chapter by editing it so there would be fewer to no spelling errors and it sounds more exciting. As I should mention I do not own Sword Art Online and the only thing I own of it is information a video game crossover of it and Accel World will be coming out...probably only in Japan though. **

XXX

With hardly any warning, the spider shot a long web at Kat. Knowing she had to act quickly, she use her magic to create a physical barrier of protection.

"Let me handle this," Kiku said boldly.

Once the spider had finished its first attack, a window of opportunity opened up for Kiku to make a counter attack without being struck by the beasts long legs, but he would have to be swift.

He boldly struck his powerful weapon at the spider's leg. A mark appeared on it's head indicating every hit it but as usual, the Boss Monster did not fall down no matter how much damage it took.

All too soon, the chance to attack the beast had ended as it finally took aim and shot a long web out its mouth, straight at Kiku. Inataro and Kat stepped in to help, but he reacted quickly and managed to evade the webs by rolling to the right.

"Back off!" Kiku exclaimed "Once I land a hit on a beast, all the Experience Points belongs to me. You can have fun by either joining me or watching me beat this monster all myself."

Kat sneered as she ignored Kiku's ego and slashed an X on the Boss Monster. The Boss Monster tried to bite back at the girl but she was too fast as she blocked the attack with her weapon. She then followed on by ploughing back in and slashing a crescent wound across its face.

As the spider recoiled from the blow, Kiku saw he could attack the spider while it was still dazed. So he leapt up and brought his mighty hammer down on the beast with a deafening crash.

Everyone knew Kiku had delivered the final blow when the Boss erupted into a million glittering pixels; it was thanks to him the small party had defeated the levels Ultimate Boss.

"Well that was fun, but I think another weaker party could use my help far more then you two" Kiku smiled; then without even saying goodbye, he turned and walked out of the boss room leaving Inataro and Kat to wonder about the strange player.

"Do you think that guy was one of the beta testers before getting trapped in SAO?" Inataro asked.

"He certainly seems like it; a real Beater if I ever saw one" Kat replied. "Still, he's handy with a weapon and it was fun being in a party with him."

"Lets not use a Teleport Crystal" Kat said as she stood.

"Why not? We won't get many Experience Points going back through the dungeon" Inataro noted.

"True but we will gain some and I'm hoping one of the beasts we fight on the way out will drop a Rare Item or two" she replied.

Inataro and Kat went back back to the second floor and found the Swine Ogre's wandering around aimlessly until the two SAO players arrived.

Inataro moved in first and used a combo move from his weapons skill list, cleaving through two Swine Ogre's simultaneously.

Kat sheathed her weapon knowing a player with their weapon sheath could dash faster than when they were armed. She made it to center of the the Swine Ogre's before unsheathing her weapon and swinging it around at all of them.

The path of her weapon glowed like a thin a blue line, cutting through the Swine Ogres. The beasts health levels all dropped to zero and needless to say they exploded into a shower of pixels.

After a while Inataro checked his item list but although he had picked up a lot of drops, he was sorry to see there wasn't a rare item in the whole bunch.

The two friends continued on their journey out of the dungeon until they came across a group of Bloody Reaper's. These monsters looked just like the hooded figure of the Grim Reaper but with no legs. They slowly levitated a few feet off the ground, circling a ruby colored treasure chest.

Kat moved like lightning,slashing at the front of a Bloody Reaper first with her left hand and then her right. It seemed very strange when the monster exploded into glittering pixels, but the other Reaper's all ignored her.

Inataro had never faced a Bloody Reaper before but he was not about to leave them all to his teammate Kat. So he rushed at the nearest one, spinning as he slashed at it. He made a large curved cut across the Bloody Reaper's chest before it split in two and exploded.

"I found it" Inataro cried out excitedly "It appears to be some kind of armband for restoring health. It's not as good as the other one in my inventory, but this one can be upgraded so I only need to give it to a weapon-smith when we get back."

The find made Kat a little happier.

"Rare drops are great but defeating monsters and gaining Experience Points is the only thing that will keep us alive in this game" Kat said. "We won't be leaving until we've killed a hundred more each."

Together they worked hard but it took one hundred more wins for Inataro to realize; the best and quickest way to get Experience Points is by accomplishing quests.

"Hurry up Kat" Inataro implored "We need to head back to Floor Thirteen. I want to get some of the quests from the noticeboard in the town square."

After his urging, Inataro and Kat sprinted back as fast as they could but as they approached the thirteenth floor, they saw someone with a Katana blade raised, who looked intensely at the two of them before bursting out into tears.

"You must help me avenge the deaths of my friends" the player implored them "we were defeated by the dangerous boss here. Please!" he begged.

"Come on Kat" Inataro said "This looks like a real emergency. If we don't defeat this Boss Monster, many other players could die too."

"Yes and we get to be genuine heroes in a real life situation" she agreed "There is nothing more noble."

"Thank you both so very much" the player with the Katana wiped his eyes after hearing the good news.

After having come so far and fought so much, Inataro and Kat were relieved to find the area they sought was just to the left of the dungeon they had come from. They found themselves at the top of a large sand hole with a ramp of stairs leading down.

The player with the Katana tried to take the lead and walk down first, but Kat moved ahead of him.

"Just tell us which way to go" she ordered "and if there are any monsters down near the entrance, let me be the first one to attack them."

The player was somewhat taken aback but conceded the point to Kat "I will also fight but if you want to strike first I will allow it."


	9. Chapter 9

**Marty the Martian helped me write this chapter. He came up with some of the cool words that were in my action scenes. The ending really is anticlimatic but the next chapter will finish what this chapter started with, redemption for characters that didn't even get a flashback written for them. **

XXX

Kat strutted down the steps with her sword in its sheathed position while behind her, the Katana player gulped nervously thinking about what they would soon face. Inataro tried to be brave but was a tiny bit relieved when he got to walk in the back. Courage was difficult to come by however when the frightening sight of a murky black mist began to rise up from the ground.

But Inataro's attention was soon taken off of the mist when he saw a Crawling Blood Bat was coming straight at them. This odd creature could not fly but did have sharp claws like dragon teeth protruding from its wings, it could use to hurt players by sapping their health.

Without hesitation, Kat unsheathed her sword and attacked the bat in a V swing pattern. A spray of purple pixels erupted from the wound Kat inflicted before the Crawling Blood Bat exploded. After the simple dispatch, the coming battle looked like it would be a piece of cake until a new set of monsters descended from above.

These latest attackers were a group of rampage monsters with butterfly wings making them both fearsome and beautiful.

"Don't try and defeat these monsters on your own Kat" Inataro said "Let me help you take them down."

"If we use a switch combo, it should bring their health bars down pretty darn fast."

Inataro made an arc slash across the monsters right side before immediately leaping back. This allowed Kat to move in and repeat the attack, multiplying its effect.

It would have taken Inataro at least three strikes to destroy the monster but thanks to Kat's higher level, it exploded after just one hit each. The pair used a powerful combo on the second beast. Standing back to back, they sprung into a twirling arc slashing at the rampage monster several times as they spun past.

Then the unknown player sped forward towards the enemy with a devastating eighteen attack combo move. His attack was so furious, both Inataro and Kat began to wonder why he needed their help. Even so, it was Kat who swung her sword in an uppercut as the last beast made its final attack and destroyed it with a single blow.

"I'm getting far too reckless on these side journeys" Kat told herself "I really must take more care."

A few steps further down, Inataro noticed glistening stalagmites made out of green emeralds. He also saw something very strange encrusted in the dirt; it was the string outline of a berserk monster with two ruby red eyes. Such was the allure of the emeralds, if the players weren't in a virtual world, they would all be racing to claim the valuable gems.

The small army of Lizard Dragons however, were another matter altogether; no one was in a hurry to face these armor shelled, four legged beasts. Even so, Kat did not hesitate to jump in with sword a blur, right where the third player needed her; where the beasts were gathering to attack. They may not have been a pushover but with Kat's strength and skill, she found it was childs play to turn these monsters from enemies into pixels.

She slashed at the dragons five times, activating a multiple hit trigger that instantly destroy one of the beasts. Inataro back up his friend with an impressive front flip before twirling his weapon at the nearest dragon. Luck was with him as his attack did a devastating amount of damage to his unsuspecting foe.

The Katana wielding player joined Kat and they wandered ahead of the last dragon not yet deleted from the floor.

Behind them, Inataro ploughed into the final dragon before spinning around, slicing the dragons neck. Pixels that looked like blood flowed from the fatal wound ahead of the beasts demise.

"I saw you struggling to kill that last dragon" Kat scolded "Come over here and stay close."

Inataro needed to move fast so he sheathed his weapon and ran towards his friend. When he caught up they were all standing outside the Boss Room; just one more step over the line and the battle could begin.

"This is for my fearless comrades" the stranger cried out. "Even if a Boss Monster can re-spawn, I will finally have my chance to avenge the deaths of my friends."

Both Kat and Inataro were happy to help this man as they all walked into the cage like Boss Room. As they stepped forward, a purple barrier appeared around them and the steel bar door.

Before they could react, a giant bipedal monster ran down the wall. It was heavily armoured with blade like appendages protruding from its elbows. It was typical for a Boss Monster to make an elaborate entrance using sound or movement; like a mighty roar or a display of fighting technique to intimidate its enemy. This Boss flipped backwards through the air before crashing down onto its feet in a prefect landing.

Without a moments hesitation, the Katana Player drove his sword straight into the monster's body in a preemptive strike.

Naturally Kat and Inataro backed up their colleague as they charged in and slashed their swords at the sides of the Boss. The Boss Monster spun around viciously, looking something like a horrific figure skater as it slashed all three combatants at once. They all sustained heavy damage and were repelled well away from the beast.

Remembering players cannot feel pain in SAO, Kat leapt like a rabbit back onto her feet. She slowly swung the tip of the blade close to her right ear before unleashing a devastating combo attack.


	10. Chapter 10

**Marty the Martian helped make the sentences in this story longer and helped fix grammar mistakes. Also Bakugan4Life is the one who sent me the idea for the player at the bottom. I told him he wouldn't get to see his character until next chapter but I stand by telling him that because no one knows anything about the player yet. **

XXX

Kat landed three powerful hits on the Boss's left shoulder, glanced her weapon off its chin, and even stabbed the tip of her sword into its toe on her way out. She then jumped to the right while it was preparing a slow attack and jumped again as it tried to hit her.

The Katana player and Inataro needed to learn a thing or two from Kat's moves from the moment they stood up. Kat knew she did not have much time before the monster would strike again, so she threw a health potion at Inataro and when his health bar was at its maximum level, she punched him right in the gut.

"Stop whining and toughen up. Don't forget we're trapped in a online game that could kill us at any moment. I need a distraction now and you are going to provide it for me."

Inataro knew he wouldn't need his weapon to cause a distraction, but he would need speed if he wanted to stay alive. So he sheathed his sword and started to run in circles right in front of the beast.

Much to Inataro's surprise, the Boss did a strange ballet like dance on point. It circled around Inataro but stopped when it was behind him and slashed violently with its sharp weapon.

"Are you ready to show this thing that you're the boss?" Kat said to the Katana player "Then let's go; we attack together."

The two players gave no quarter as they slashed their blades rapidly, all over the Boss's body. It was a like mix of two different colors, blending together and blinding the Boss's eyes. At first it seemed like just another failed attempt, until blood pixels started to leak out of the Boss Monster many wounds and finally it exploded before their very eyes.

The Katana player just stood there stunned for a short time. His journey was finally over; he had finished off the Boss responsible for killing his friends. The monsters may only be programs created to challenge players but because they were all trapped in this game, it had changed from being a fun pass time into a daily struggle over life and death.

"I'm indebted to you both" he said at last "Maybe one day I shall join your party but for now I must fight alone; I must become stronger."

"You nitwit." Kat said to the surprise of everyone "You may speak like a noble ally character who shows up later to save the day, but you brought your friends to the wrong boss before they were ready. What's to stop you from doing the same thing again? Stepping into the wrong place, wandering into a meadow or forest where there are more monsters than you can handle, just to have you die in the real world because of your foolish mistake."

"What Kat means is, even Beater's and role playing game experts cannot predict everything" Inataro noted. "You'd have to fight a lot of monsters to get stronger and sometimes you get trapped and fine they're too way strong for you to handle alone. Perhaps you should try enhancing your weapons and armor before you go out again."

"Your right" he admitted "I only joined this game because I wanted to play something new that wasn't too spooky. Thank you for being concerned but there are ways to plan my movements and level up without taking too many risks with my life."

The group used an escape Crystal to exit the battle area and spent a little more time exploring in the underground dungeon. As for what happened to the Katana player, he wandered off and followed a few Non-Player Characters to see if they would come across any kind of danger.

Kat used the time walking to look around and think. She wondered where the journey was going to take her and at time like this, when she started to feel bad, all she wanted to do was go into a church and just think about loss in the game and missing things in the real world. She knew would have to work hard in order to get back or she would surely lose her life.

She set aside the unthinkable feelings for a moment and slashed her sword at a wild, vicious looking red eyed goat with massive black horns, making short work of the beast.

The fire eyed goat may have been an easy defeat, but something bigger soon wandered across her path. It was a high level monster and Kat knew if she could slay the beast, it would reward her with many experience points. There was bound to be a treasure chest with a rare item inside as well.

Kat smiled as she moved in to try slating it when suddenly, another player stepped in front of her. He had slightly groomed crimson hair and his eyes were just as red, appearing to be genetically flawed. The most interesting thing about the intruding player though, was his impressive dual blade wielding stance.

He moved fast and landed a strong blow with both swords at once and when the large monster tried a return attack, he parried and blocked with his weapons.


	11. Chapter 11

**Thank you for your patience and I hope my nearly 2000 word chapter makes up for your waiting. I also thank Marty the Martian for beta reading my chapter. I also thank an old friend and person who is on a forum for having good fanfiction's for encouraging me to write this chapter. **

XXX

Kat was furious at the crimson haired player for stepping in uninvited; since the one who attacks first, also receives the most Experience Points from the battle. It was Inataro who then followed up with an attack on the giant monster of his own. Leaping high off the ground, he gave a mighty slash at the beasts front left shoulder.

With the monster finally dispatched, the stranger approached the other two smiling.

"Hi there; my name is Kazuya, but you can call me the Crimson Ghost" he introduced himself.

"I'll call you rude and inconsiderate" Kat hissed "Do you always steal other players chances for high Experience Points?"

The Crimson haired player laughed sheepishly about what he had done. "I'm sorry; I only ever kill someone else's monster when it's absolutely necessary. I saw another player go after that thing and he was clearly not strong enough. It was only thanks to me that the player in question is still alive today."

He didn't even try to hide his level screen and Kat was surprised to see not only was he at level eighty-six, but his health bar was almost at maximum.

"Do you always hunt with this person who was almost deleted?" Inataro asked.

"No; actually I'm a bit of alone wolf in this game, but I constantly seem to get dragged into fights when people need my help the most."

"Let me see your stat screen" Kat demanded. " There's no way you could be walking on your own unless your stats are higher than mine. I'm in the seventies and I still travel around with this guy; he's not very helpful but he is as tough as I am."

Kazuya opened his stats for Kat to inspect and to her utter disbelief she saw all of them were almost at maximum.

"I used to play the old Dreamcast game, Berserk Guts Rage and I found with high speed, it's like using the slide button and I can do some pretty cool dodging" Kazuya snickered while Kat was looking over his screen.

"Seems like you are doing pretty well for yourself but I'll bet I can outmatch your stats in just seven days; it's only in strength your excel and nothing else."

"Well... good luck doing better than me in only seven days. If it'll make it any easier on you, I'll be spending most of my time in a tavern enjoying a tasty beverage or two."

And with that said, Kazuya turned and walked away without another word.

"Look at that smug little face" Kat hissed and vented her anger by punching one of the nearby trees and a red hexagon appeared revealing the tree to be an Immortal Object.

"If I were to accept his challenge by myself, I would surely fail and spend the rest of my time here feeling sorry for myself. But I have you to help me Inataro so let's push forward, level up and get back at him okay?"

Inataro was not usually one to challenge a player just because he was envious of their levels, but he realised this could also be a very good way for he and Kat to become stronger players; thus giving them a better chance of survival in SAO.

As time passed slowly by, the day was inevitably coming to an end while outside the world of SAO, Kat and Inataro would still be sleeping comfortably with their headsets on, in an almost endless dream. But here in the game, they swung their blades over and over again, like a medieval knight on a busy day during dragon hunting season.

There was one thing however, that bothered Inataro greatly; no matter how hard he tried, the young man feared he could not be the training partner Kat needed him to be. She was regularly on his case about it, reminding him that very soon they were going to be fighting much higher level creatures and would be going on missions without the things they needed to succeed and when that time came, they would need to be much stronger than they were now.

Kat ploughed through dungeon after dungeon, defeating Boss Monsters almost as powerful as the one she had fought with the Katana player. Inataro fought at her side and together they faced a four winged bird monster, a long necked serpentine with two arms, and a monster with sharp thorns protruding out of its body.

When it came to battling, Kat felt like she could not get enough. She needed to reach the highest levels and be the strongest player because fighting was the only way she could cope with her SAO entrapment. Just like many others who fought on the front lines, Kat felt partly responsible for every lost player and so she would do whatever it took to keep them all alive.

Suddenly without warning, several horses galloped out of the woods and surrounded Kat and Inataro.

"Lookout Kat" Inataro noted "I've got a horrible feeling we are about to be robbed!"

Kat was surprised players were allowed to ride horses in SAO; it didn't feel like they were parts of the game.

The first of the riders attacked by swinging a chain-sickle around his head before hurling it straight at Kat's neck. But her hard work and training paid off and the attacker was far too slow; she dodged the weapon with ease and did not even lose her defense stance.

"The girl is too strong" the leader called out to the other attackers "Start off by taking out the other guy first."

A bandit pulled the string back on his bow and fired an arrow towards Inataro. The young man tried to react as Kat did but he was far too slow as the arrow pierced his neck and passed straight through to the other side. In the real world, Inataro would have had no hope of surviving such an attack but thanks to his strength in SAO, he only began to bleed pixels as his heath bar move slowly down.

Infuriated by the attack on her partner, Kat spun around slashing wildly with her blade. Two of the player killers exploded into pixels with a single slash. She may have succeeded in getting them off Inataro, but now then they swarmed all over Kat, hacking away methodically with their swords.

Inataro clumsily stepped forward and slashed at one of Kat's attackers, hitting it in the collarbone. It immediately exploded on impact and Inataro thought the others would turn onto him, but since they were only AI programs, they paid no attention or sought any revenge for their fallen comrade.

Kat let out a growlish roar before stabbing her sword all the way through an AI's chest. As it exploded, Inataro tripped another of the AI attackers, causing it to explode too as it fell right onto his sword.

"Thank you for coming and I was pleased to make your acquaintance, but we find your fighting pitiful and worthless" Kat said with a smile as she put her sword away.

No sooner had she sheathed her weapon, when the forest began to shake violently. It was rapidly becoming a dangerous place and Kat believed they could be about to encounter a rare and powerful foe.

Kat and Inataro's hearts began to beat faster. This new creature may not be such a huge problem but for one simple fact; with the sound of it's approach echoing in from every direction, they had no way of knowing from where the first attack would come.

Suddenly a pack of the strangest looking ghost creatures flew out of the forest from every direction. They all wore a black cape and had a head that looked oddly like a purple jellyfish. As if their appearance wasn't bad enough, each one carried a black metal scythe.

Kat went straight on the offensive by jumping up and forward with a slash she was sure would destroy the ghost. But it used its scythe to block her attack, doing a much better job of keeping itself alive than the bandits did.

She quickly used a switch maneuver giving Inataro the chance to make surprise attack on the grim reaper. The attack was a great success and he drilled 1/3 from the horrid things health bar.

"Good move partner but your still not up to my level" Kat said tersely. As if to prove her point, she clutched her sword tightly and swung the blade down hard at the reaper. The remainder of its health instantly dropped down to zero, leaving one less foe for the pair to worry about.

"If we're going to survive here, we need to level you up fast" Kat insisted "On my mark, run in and slash once at each of them. You may get most of the Experience Points when we're finished with them, but after all we are a team."

Inataro followed her directions to the letter as he ran at four of the reapers and slashed each one of them with his weapon.

The Reapers fight program forced them to pursue whoever attacked them first and this gave Kat the upper hand. As the foe pursued Inataro, she gave chase, fluidly swinging her blade and picking them off one by one.

Her battle skills and high attack level meant she could easily dispatch the reapers, giving Inataro the First Hit Experience Bonus he so badly needed. No sooner was the battle done, when suddenly Kat heard the heavy footsteps of something very big lumbering through the forest.

"Not again" Kat sighed at the sight of a giant Behemoth with a massive sword.

They both expected a powerful opening attack from this creature but instead of swinging its sword at them, it twirled the weapon like a baton. A multi colored swirling portal formed at the spinning blade and from it, more reapers flew out and rushed towards Kat. Luckily Inataro was ready and he jumped in, swinging his sword at the reapers necks.

The experience Inataro received after the last attack meant this time his swinging depleted the reapers Hit Points fully. The behemoth though followed the reapers by instantly slashing his sword down at Inataro. Kat flew at him and managed to push him away as the sword hit the ground, making it shake violently.

With the second round of reapers taken care of, Kat and Inataro got back up ready to attack the monster before it could send out a third group. They rushed towards the behemoth simultaneously with one of their famous and deadly combo attacks. This time Kat struck first and received the Experience Points for defeating the reapers. At first she was happy about it but only until the giant sword wielding monster tried cutting her in half.

"Who would have guessed an SAO monster could create acolytes to serve under it?" Inataro said. " How are we suppose to defeat something that big only using these tiny weapons?"

"Any and every scratch will lower its Hit Points so we just strike over and over till we wear it down" Kat said "Come on then; we go in together, fast and hard."

The minions responded to their Master being damaged by repeatedly attacking Kat and Inataro. Even though their health was steadily draining away under the constant attack, they knew the battle would never end if they did not concentrate on attacking and defeating the Behemoth Master.


	12. Chapter 12

**Thank you Marty the Martian for editing this chapter for me and thank you viewers for being patient for me to update. This is a new arc which unfortunately I'm making up as I go but I hope it can end the way I want it to. **

XXX

Eventually the damage brought on by the reapers started to add up and Inataro could not heal fast enough. He had no choice but to temporarily stop fighting and use one of the healing potions in his bag.

As soon as he halted his attack, Inataro noticed Kat was taking a very different course of action as she continued slashing away at the the giant beast. He knew straight away there was no other choice; she would probably die if she were not healed first.

He threw a health potion into the air; it arced towards his partner and burst into glittering light as it touched her head. She immediately felt the potions effect and knew what it was Inataro had used; the realisation made her furious.

"A small potion?! You have so many health potions in storage and you give me a small one?! If we ever get out of this, I'm gonna kill you!"

Inataro felt so sorry for what he had done. He certainly did not mean to use a low powered potion but he simply panicked when choosing which one to use. At least the fury she was showing helped her to parry faster against her foes attacks.

Knowing he should get back into the battle straight away, Inataro quickly used another potion to recover his own health, and immediately slew two reapers with an upward grace sword move.

Inataro's success in destroying those reapers allowed he and Kat to concentrate their attacks on the Behemoth once again. An odd change came over the beast as its life ebbed away, when its skin began to turn bright red.

As the creature ebbed closer to its final destruction, it exhaled as it brought its sword slamming down in its most devastating attack yet. Kat moved back and left to avoid being hit, while keeping herself between Inataro and the deadly sword.

"Sorry you big lump of garbage but your last attack, was simply a pathetic waste of time" she smirked.

Kat and Inataro slashed simultaneously at the beast, finally destroying the giant monster. A notification screen appeared immediately after the battle, informing them about the extremely high number of Experience Points they had just earned.

There were so many points, Kat leveled up after defeating the beast while Inataro surprisingly did not. What was even stranger, was the fact they both received equal Experience Points.

"I think we'd better eat something now" Kat decided "Defeating all those monsters really gives you an appetite; even in a body with no real stomach."

"I'm hoping we can go back down one floor" Inataro said "there's a restaurant there I really want to try."

When this meal was over, Kat decided she was going to find that smug character Kazuya and get their duel over with.

As Kat plotted her revenge, Inataro just sat and enjoyed a nice hamburger with a garden salad on the side and a refreshing fruit drink as well.

Kat on the other hand, could not really enjoy her meal due to the frustration she felt. She just wanted to take her fork stab the table repeatedly to get all that tension out.

Fortunately for Inataro, before Kat could take out her frustrations on him, a familiar casual whistling drifted into the restaurant from the street. It was Kazuya; just the person Kat wanted to catch up with. Without waiting for her partner, she rushed outside to challenge him to a duel.

"Hello there" Kazuya greeted Kat as she approached "Hope you don't mind I held back on leveling up, waiting for you to get stronger?"

"You better not have been doing that just because I'm a girl and you have a little crush on me" she smirked.

A small crowed gathered in the town square to enjoy the coming spectacle about to commence. Under the rules set down, both players were allowed to unsheath their weapons and ready themselves during the countdown for them to start. As they waited, the combatants both stared intensely into each anothers eyes.

They both tensed up during the last second of the countdown until finally, with a brief buzz the duel began and they sprang towards each other. Both had hoped to use speed to move in close and slash the other through the chest, but instead their blades connected in a glorious shower of sparks.

They both staggered back, unable to attack in such close quarters. Inataro noticed something very interesting about the fight when neither of the combatants took the opportunity to strike with a low thrust as they separated. They both seemed to favor a more powerful direct attack from the front or above.

Kazuya rushed a second attack and slash stabbed Kat from her chest to her stomach; but he left his right side exposed in the follow through so she used a return combo move and hit him with a triple slash.

There was no doubt Kazuya had skills, but Kat's strength wasn't just measured by a stat screen alone. She blocked far more of Kazuya's attacks than he did of hers; and when Kat slashed him across his right hand, he just kept on mindlessly attacking because he felt no pain.

This went on until Kat was only one hit away from winning the duel but with lightning speed, Kazuya struck hard lowering Kat's health points to his level, putting him well and truly back in the game.

With no time to think, Kat did the one thing she could to turn the duel back into her favor; she used a powerful combo where she leaped like a tiger and thrust her sword viciously into Kazuya's chest.

The young mans overdeveloped ego took the greatest amount of damage when Kat's strike lowered his life points far enough to end their duel. With the smuggest of smug looks, Kat sheathed her blade in its scabbard and stood tall as the victor, taking in the applause of the small crowd.

"Let it be known" Kat declared "I don't mess around in this game and neither should any of you. If you do, you'll end up dead; just like too many other unlucky players already have."

Inataro kept a low profile in the crowd; he just wanted to trek out of town so he could ignore everything going on with Kat and Kazuya.

He wished he could continue to be her partner while he worked to catch up with her skill level, and a part of him wished she would follow him out into the country; but as he suspected, she stayed behind in town.

o0o

o0o

Inataro made his way into a nearby forest. He knew there would be monsters about but this close to town, they would only be low level beasts for beginners so he would probably only need his knife to take care of them. He didn't know it yet, but he was going to have a new companion soon to face the forest journey. He set up camp in a safe looking area near a river, but soon found he couldn't even drink from the water without a viper or two swimming after him.

In the real world, a single bite from one of these venomous snakes would have meant certain death but in game, a bite would just lower his health a little; so he began to wonder why so many such creatures were created in game?

Inataro had many theories, but these thoughts only made him wish he was back home in the real world so he could let out his anger in a Kendo match and maybe even enter a tournament.

Those homesick thoughts soon left him however, when a carriage passed by his campsite on the rocky road, just a little bit too high for him to see. He assumed the person driving would just pass by but to his surprise, she jumped off instead.

Leaping forward himself, Inataro managed to catch her before she hit the ground and lost a lot of health points from the fall. She was fortunately very light and the first thing Inataro noticed was the girls pink hair as it stuck out on all sides.

"Most gentlemen would keep their hands off a women who fell into their arms" she said "Listen, I'm in a lot of trouble right now and I need your help to pull off a miracle with these people who are after me."

Inataro rarely ever met people who actually needed his help for anything and it felt good to be useful for a change. While he was thinking to himself about it, he heard the sound of swords chopping trees and undergrowth in the distance.

Inataro correctly assumed these people were the reason this girl needed a miracle. Without leaving her side he pulled out his sword and no sooner had he done so, than the first of the men she feared came into sight.

"It is unwise of you to protect this girl for I will fight you in a battle to the death to take her back; I very strong feelings about this" The first man said.

His choice of weapon was a Lance and Inataro knew he would have to be on his guard, using a Katana against a weapon with such a long reach.

The attacker positioned his feet in a strong balanced stance and jabbed precisely at Inataro's shoulder but thanks to the experience he had gained fighting alongside Kat, he easily blocked the attack and swept the Lance aside with his Katana sword.

Inataro attacked with a three move combo he had used many times in the past and should have dealt some powerful damage, but the attack only took 1/10 of the Lance wielders health points.

During the follow though of his attack, Inataro was hit by an uppercut blow and lost a staggering 3/10ths of his Health Points. He soon realized ;three more attacks like the one he'd just received and he was a goner, but he knew one way to prevent it from happening.

He pulled a small health potion out of his inventory and squeezed it, fully restoring his Health Points.

"You are going to die today and potions will not help you" the Lance wielder boasted "and you will notice I do not even feel the need to use any health potions."

If this had been a fight in real life, it would be plain to see mean trash talkers aren't always true to their word; but this time and in this game, the foe was far too much for Inataro to handle because his higher level gave him three times the strength.

The attacking man leapt onto the air and extending his reach by holding the Lance from its end. Inataro deftly evaded the tip of the Lance and twisted his sword in a counterattack, like a claw going through his foes body.

"Don't you see you're protecting someone who thinks of you as nothing more than a lowly grub and is using you for her protection. So you will know, I will kill you very slowly and allow you to look back and see that she does not help you."

Inataro turned around and saw the girl standing behind him, biting her lower lip and with hands shaking. To his enemies surprise, Inataro used a technique he had learned in training, as he hit the lancer with his Katana blade while his face was still turned away.

Inataro soon realized he would have to go farther into this combat than any other fight he has ever had with another player; he may even have to kill the man or die himself. To show he meant business, Inataro cleaved his weapon swift and hard at his opponents arm.

His attack was precise and depleted the foes health by 4/10ths; Inataro finally felt as if he was getting somewhere at last. The Lancer returned the attacked with ferocity hitting Inataro multiple times, but his swings were wild and undisciplined because of his anger, so the damage to Inataro's health was only 1/10th.

Inataro countered the crazed attack with precision moves, thrusting his sword forward. The unexpected jab caught the Lancer off guard, allowing Inataro to repeat the attack twice more in quick succession. Damage from the triple jab accumulated to take four out of the players six remaining health points and Inataro knew he would not survive one more attack without using a health potion.

He was certainly a bullheaded man and he continued to fight without healing himself. As the fight went on, Inataro lost a small amount of health but not enough for him fret over. What did worry him though was the thought of killing another player; even though it was in self defense, did it make him a monster.

The madman continued to neglect his health and laughed maniacally as he rushed to attack. Inataro was left with no choice as he swung his sword across the man's gut and ended his life. A look of shocked surprise flashed over the man's face before his body exploded into shining pixels.

Inataro's shoulders dropped as he watched his foe disappear from existence. He fully expected to be attacked by the Lancers colleagues bent on avenging their fallen comrade, but instead he felt the soft touch of someone wrapping their arms around his waist in a warm embrace.

"It would be very rude of me not to comfort you after you've been through such a grueling experience" the girl declared. "I've been running from that man for a long time but you overcame him, even though he was well above your level; you are the luckiest young man alive right now."

Inataro felt like a hero. This girl may have been more than a little blunt when she spoke (just like someone else he knew), but she made those near her feel like they were significant; like they really mattered. Inataro liked being held by her but the real question was, who is she and what is she doing out here in the woods?

They both sat down by Inataro's camp fire and as time passed, a bond began to form between them. It felt to Inataro as if they were like two colleagues who just happened to be thrown together in this virtual world. He knew he would have to be alert now that night had fallen, because monsters were more likely to attack in the cover of darkness; but for now Inataro found himself mesmerized just watching this girl peel a virtual cantaloupe.


	13. Chapter 13

**Thank you for the reviewers and thank you Marty the Martian for beta reading this chapter for me. Just because the next chapter will make you think this fanfiction is over doesn't really mean it is. There's still two more games Kirito has entered even though they should have just stopped after the first series. **

XXX

"This reminds me of the time my father and I were all alone for a week when my mother went to visit her old girlfriends in the military" she said taking a bite of the succulent fruit.

"Oh yeah? How did that turn out for you?" Inataro asked.

"For the whole week my father kept rubbing it in my face about how he had survived a car accident, in two days I ate two sandwiches my mother had prepared for me, and the only real friend I had was my dog."

Inataro looked down at his sword and pondered all the things he had been striving towards in the game. They all seemed to be very good goals and the most important one was simply staying alive.

"Did you ever want to be a vet when you were in the real world?" he asked.

"Strange question" the girl smiled "but with my grades I would have been lucky to get a job sweeping the floor in a pencil factory."

Without realizing it, Inataro found himself staring right at the bridge of the girls nose; he tried to think of something else to say but his brain froze up. In the end he decided could keep talking just for the sake of it, or he could say goodnight and go to sleep.

"I hope you don't mind" Inataro said " but I'm very tired after everything that happened today; so if it's alright with you, I think I'll go to sleep now."

Inataro didn't know much about how sleep worked in this SAO. Sure in some open world video games there were functions that allowed the players to sleep, but back in the real world their bodies were already sleeping.

As he lay down and closed his eyes, Inataro thought about Kat and he figured she was probably asleep right now dreaming about how great she was. He started counting and reached a number in the thousands before nodding off but when he awoke, his hand was on his scabbard.

Inataro could sense he wasn't alone in the dark woods as someone with Raven black hair and a black cloak was looking straight at him; at first he thought he was looking at Kirito.

"Please get up and come with me. I have to tell you a nursery rhyme, you need to hear and it's for your ears only; not for your girlfriend to hear."

Inataro felt like he really didn't have much of a choice but to follow the directions given to him or risk waking his so called "girlfriend". He also thought it best not to challenge the stranger because his stats were at a much higher level than Inataro's.

o0o

o0o

Having heard what the mysterious character had to say, Inataro understood the meaning behind all of the rhyming. It meant he knew Inataro in the real world and that he had hidden a rare weapon somewhere.

"Think of me as your teacher in this game and my lesson will help you to survive."

Inataro was ready to listen to what the player had to say but just when it looked like he was going to talk, he suddenly darted off through the forest at very fast pace. Inataro didn't get it; normally when someone acted this way it was a sign they wanted to be left alone, but Inataro knew for sure he should chase the player into the forest.

He ran hard and managed to keep close on the players tai,l until they were suddenly caught up in a group of shaman like monsters with lion heads. The player dispatched one of the monsters with a few quick slashes followed by a combo that left a small crater in the ground. Following close behind, Inataro had to block two attacks from the beast in front of him, before he finally got the chance to use a combo and defeated the monster.

"This is fun" the player laughed as he dispatched another monster "we should be doing this more often."

Inataro just couldn't understand why the player was laughing this battle off, as if it was only something trivial. There were still plenty of monsters in the area, but they all kept their distance from Inataro when he ceased his attacks on them.

"It's always a good idea to teach a player not to go after a monster unless they really want to accept the consequences of dying" The figure with dark hair laughed.

Inataro just wished he could find a way to earn more experience points without just slashing away at low level monsters time and time again. He looked around and saw the player sitting cross legged on a rock, so he wandered over and sat close by.

"Doesn't it feel nice to sit this way?" the dark haired boy asked Inataro.

"Not really" the young player replied "it makes my hips hurt and I'm getting a leg cramp."

The player found Inataro's comment very amusing since they were in a virtual world, meaning leg cramps were an improbability at best unless his mind was telling him he had a leg cramp.

"I saw how you defeated that very powerful opponent" he told Inataro "but I know you only got lucky; because if only he had concentrated more on the balance of the battle, instead of simply trying to slay you as quickly as he could, he would have been the victor and you would be nothing than a memory."

Inataro was a little annoyed; he didn't follow this man just to hear how he was lucky to be alive, he already knew about this obvious fact.

Inataro wondered is if this young man could be a Beta Tester like Kirito, a programmer for the game perhaps, or just someone who has been keeping a watchful eye on him and might be able to help improve his chances of survival when fighting in this virtual world.


	14. Chapter 14

**Thank you again for your patience and I hope your happy with this chapter. It's how I choose the direction of my story to go and I wasn't sure about it. I thank Marty the Martian though for fixing my sentences. **

XXX

"There is no other way around it; to win the players have to completely decimate Sword Art Online and the only way to beat this game is to shove your hand right up its nostrils and tear its brains out."

The players views sounded a little harsh to Inataro, but in a strange way it also pumped up his resolve to beat the game and go home. Inataro hoped to talk with the player a little longer, but knew he had better put those thoughts on hold when they both heard a sound in the woods. There certainly could be more monsters in the forest, but the players could usually see the creatures before they attacked.

To Inataro the whole day was beginning to feel like a bad movie, where you hear a spine tingling sound every time something moves in the shadows. This time though, they received far more warning than a simple off screen dumb jump scare. A red haired player appeared before them, carrying a sinister looking double edge black sword.

Inataro looked the new arrival up and down and smiled when he realized he knew the right way to fight this player. He quickly advanced on the intruder as he unsheathed his Katana from his scabbard and struck in a flurry of Blade Thrusts.

Before Inataro could land his attack, the player evaded with a jump to the right that also brought him over Inataro's head.

"This guy's a bit of a looney" he said to himself.

Looney or not, there was no doubt this guy had some good evasive moves, as he thrust his blade at Inataro. Fortunately Inataro had very good defensive skills and he block the blade with ease.

"You killed my friend!" the red headed player cried out "Now hand over the girl and I won't kill you; even though you deserve it."

"I only killed your friend because he forced me to defend myself" Inataro declared "I didn't lay down and die for him and I won't lay down and die for you either."

They swung their swords left in parallel and then right in perfect mirror attacks as the blades flashed millimeters from each other's throats. If the player sitting on the nearby rock didn't step in to help soon, Inataro feared he would be forced to do to the same thing to this foe, as he did to his last opponent.

Inataro followed up his last attack with an effective uppercut combo and landed it squarely on his opponent. The attack did a reasonable amount of damage, but the red headed player quickly restored his health by using a potion. Inataro was no fool and so when he was hit too, he instantly used a potion to recover as well.

"Living in SAO is like two ants coming face to face in a narrow tunnel; being unable to move, all we are left with are eye movements to give us the illusion of coordination."

The red headed player proved his point when he created the illusion of movement in his hands before he stabbed Inataro's shoulder. The attack surprised Inataro and he hesitated on what move he should use in retaliation against the player. But before Inataro could organize his thoughts, the player slashed at his leg leaving a deep fissure of pink pixels. He quickly backed off to get into a better position, but the player stepped up to Inataro ready to strike again.

Inataro gripped his sword with both hands in preparation for a spinning tornado attack. The fury Inataro unleashed was like a wind storm, slicing the player all over his body. Much to the red headed players surprise, he simply could not handle the sheer strength Inataro had and the power of his attack. He knew the only way to win, was to retreat for now and survive to attack later. So he scurried away as fast as he could, tripping once on a rock and feeling very relieved when Inataro didn't try to chase after him.

The man sitting on the rock laughed.

"I'll bet you're much happier now you've used your blade to get all that anger out of your system; not only you but the other guy too."

But the only thing Inataro could think about, was what had happened to the girl back at the campsite. The game's artificial sun was rising on the eastern horizon, meaning he had left the girl alone for much longer than he had planned.

He started to walk back but soon found himself jogging before moving on to a full blown sprint. As Inataro finally reached the camp site, he found the girl asleep on the ground and in the morning light, he saw a brightly colored flower in her hair.

Seeing all was well, Inataro breathed a sigh of relief and sat down with a dull thud. He decided it would be good to get a little shut eye before the day got too bright, as he lay down on the virtual ground.

Inataro yawned as he closed his eyes to rest, little knowing he was being watched by the player with the black hair, who wanted to see how Inataro chose to spend his last minutes of existence.

Not that he was going to die, but his last moments in the virtual land of SAO. Already he could see the world around him slowly changing back into data, unmasking the virtual realm that had been their reality for so long.

Inataro felt weak; laying down for so long meant a loss of fluids, and too much sleep made everything from his head to his toes feel inflamed and painful.

But at least he was alive and clearly back in the real world, so someone must have defeated the final boss. Just before he had awoken, Inataro could recall a distant female voice and it said "On November 7th at 2:55pm, the game has been cleared. Repeat; the game has been cleared."

Inataro could feel the tears trickling down his cheek; two years of fighting to stay alive and he came out without having to face the Final Boss.

His time of recuperation in hospital was long and painful. It was hard to get used to being in SAO at the start, and now it was hard coming to terms with not being in the game anymore. He missed the feeling of fulfillment he would get after defeating a monster, but here and now there were almost no happy moments; especially when he thought of all those who did not survive and would never return to their families.

After recovering, he was at last able to quench this savoury feeling, when he finally got his hands on a bamboo Kendo Sword and just let his anger out against an unfortunate and unsuspecting opponent.

The opponent wasn't half bad; he was a chef and he had a long conversation with Inataro in the changing room while they got ready for battle. As they talked Inataro found out he had a wife but no children, he had lost his grandparents only last year and had lost his father only fifteen days ago. One piece of information Inataro wondered about but had not yet discovered, was how accurate was the cooking in all the cooking shows he watched.

In the end Inataro's opponent just couldn't face the pent up fury of the young mans attacks, along with his amazing coordination and finely honed skills, he developed in the game battling with a Katana.

The defeated chef took off his Bogu Mask and smiled in admiration at the young winner of the match.

"Very well fought young man" he congratulated Inataro with a warm handshake "Your skill and control is impressive."

"Thank you Mr. Yamaito but I'm the one who should be thanking you for agreeing to spar with me; our battle has helped me to clear my head a little."


	15. Chapter 15

**This part that has my characters in the second season of SAO is going to be longer than the previous chapters leading here with some cool stuff in it and an OC a nice writer gave me. Thank you Marty the Martian for editing my chapter. **

XXX

Unfortunately for Inataro, he had to leave straight away because his parents were back in complete control of his life; they said only one hour for Kendo practice and his time was well and truly up. At least there was sure to be one of his favorite meals when he got home; his mother was making them more and more recently. So many people had not returned from SAO, so Inataro's parents were more than relieved to have him back, but they still didn't know what was going to become of him.

For the next few weeks everything returned to a kind of normal, although it was a little forced because no one truly felt normal anymore. Inataro didn't get to spend much time with any friends, but he dutifully attended his classes. Most of the teachers were unsure about how to deal with someone who had been lost in the death game for so long and so he received an odd mix of understanding hugs and blatant criticism. At home he just sat and watched his favorite anime programs like Naruto and Yu Yu Hakusho, so the only exciting thing he would do regularly was Kendo.

Each day began to feel the same as all the others, but one particular day was very different when someone hit Inataro on the back with a briefcase.

"I can't believe you actually live around here!"

Inataro turned in surprise; he thought he recognized the voice and his suspicion were confirmed when he saw Kat standing behind him. He couldn't be entirely sure if she just wanted to talk to him, or gloat about helping Kirito clear the game; he wished he knew more about how SAO had ended.

"Hey guess what; there's a new massive full dive game starting up and your allowed to play it" she said excitedly.

"Are you insane?" Inataro gasped. "That's like being freed from a lions cage, and then deciding to go back inside where the lion can eat me. It doesn't make any sense to go into another full dive MMORPG game, when we came so close to being killed in the last one... more than once.

"But you can't be killed in this new game so think of it as being able to have the experience you didn't get in SAO, because you were too afraid of dying at any moment. Just think about it while you're at school today and we'll talk later."

The school day dragged on and seemed as if it would never end; "Think about it" Kat had said. No matter how hard Inataro tried, he simply could not stop thinking about it. With holidays coming up, he could always play the new game to pass the time until school started up again.

As he wandered through the hallway of the school, Inataro was surprised to find there were many other students who were thinking about playing the new dive game. The students discussing the new game were mostly of a certain type; nearly all male, small, studious and not popular with girls. They were also the kind who had to regularly put up with being oppressed by others who were know as bullies, but were really just plain jerks.

At the end of the day, Inataro walked out of the school gate and was surprised by the aroma of cotton candy in the air. He looked around and saw a small group of very nerdish looking boys, eating the sugary junk they had just purchased from a nearby food truck, while they checked for updates on their mobile phones and tablets.

Inataro thought about approaching some of these boys to get their opinion of this new game, but he really wanted to talk with Kat first. He found her walking out of the school gate whistling along to the music coming out of her earplugs. This made getting her attention difficult as Inataro did not know how to talk to her over the music.

He reached out and grabbed her hand but when their fingers touched, Kat's face turned scarlet red; she spun around and slapped Inataro on the cheek before he knew what had happened.

"Don't sneak up on me like that" Kat gasped "You're going to give someone a heart attack jerk!"

"I wasn't sneaking; you just had your music on too loud" Inataro replied.

"When you've got you music on so loud, a freight train could sneak up on you" Inataro accused.

"Sneak? Do I look like Golllum?"

At first Inataro was shocked and a little upset at being struck, but Kat's comment along with the look on her face, made him laugh."

"I really want you to tell me Kat; how can I continue on a full dive journey in this new game?" he asked.

"First you have to accept the changes they've made in this game, even if you don't like being something lame like a pixie."

Having been a swordsman for so long, Kat's description of the new avatar did sound kind of ridiculous. In the fullness of time, Inataro decided to give this new full dive game a try. In spite of what Kat had said about the design, he liked the style of his new avatar even though the hair did look a little silly.

It was now a shocking silver colour with spikes that made him look almost electric and his outfit included a plaid jacket with a leather belt around his waist. He was expecting to look like a Pixie as Kat had said, but he found his ears were more Elf like. Inataro was not the only one who was surprised by the look of the games avatars, but a new system was introduced enabling flight thanks to insect like wings that would grow from the players back; they really were starting to look like Pixies.

" Kat?" Inataro called out "Are you here Kat?"

The other players looked at him in silence as he walked by, until he finally found who he was looking for; Kat had managed to grow her wings and they looked beautiful.

"Yeah I'm here" she said "What took you so long?"

Kat hurried over to Inataro and grabbed him by the arm. She tried to drag up and off to the side but found it difficult because Inataro had not yet mastered the art of flying.

Before he knew it, Inataro had transcended up into the sky, while holding Kat's hand very tight so he wouldn't fall. There were a few of the old SAO systems in this game as well as a new but questionable flight simulator. It reminded Inataro of the time he played the game Superman on an old Nintendo 64; great machine but a dreadful game.

"What's the plan?" Inataro asked "Where are you taking me?"

But before she could answer him, a player Kat had dueled in SAO flew up to them on blood red wings.

"Hey Kat, it's me Ghost" he called out "I am so happy to see you decided to give this game a chance."

Kat didn't say anything to the intruder, but instead she increased her flight speed and tried to get away from him. If Ghost just wanted to have another duel with her she would be happy oblige him, but other than that she did not consider them to be friends.

Eventually Kat got bored with flying around, so she dropped down to the ground and prepared herself to fight some virtual monsters nearby. The monster she faced had a broad physique and even broader shoulders. It was cloaked in armour and had a helm made from the skull of a giant rat on its head. The monsters in SAO always waited for the players to start the fight, but in this game they took the initiative and attacked first.

Kat blocked the monsters first slash using her sword; a very basic model, much weaker than the rare weapon she carried in SAO; Inataro could see quite clearly, not everything would be the same in this new game. It was no surprise when Kat managed to slay the monster using only two quick slashes and a combo. Inataro thought it was very impressive but he would have preferred to see her use elemancy, like the other players.

Kat knew as soon as she saw the first monster pixelate, defeating one would never be enough; the more battles, the more fun and higher levels. Inataro felt like Kat was ignoring him, but he got her attention back when he started to fixate on a cute player with blue hair and elf ears.

"You're fighting the next monster" Kat said "and how about I give you a little encouragement to succeed? If you can't defeat three monsters at the same time, I'm leaving you here."

Not wanting to disappoint Kat, Inataro rushed into the detection zone of three monsters standing nearby and slashed at them with his new Katana. His first attack did horrific damage to all of them so in blind fury, they scratched back at Inataro's face but he managed to fend them off with his free hand.

He fell back but quickly rose to his feet again, knowing his best bet may be to try one of the elements. So with one blink of his eyes, Inataro fired water arrows straight at the monsters.

To his surprise, the arrows actually worked well but it made Inataro feel a little weird; using magic in a game suppose to be a reboot of SAO.


	16. Chapter 16

**Yesterday I ripped my pants open where all my coworkers could see my butt. Nothing really bad happened but it was still embarrassing. And today at work the time seemed to drop out of the sky dead. Anyway, thank you Marty the Martian for editing this chapter and I hope the ending of this chapter isn't too anticlimatic. **

**XXX**

Inataro breathed a sigh of relief, having accomplished what Kat had asked him to do; not only that, but he also picked up a good amount of experience points and a potion as well.

"Well done" Kat smiled "Wanna go to town now and stock up on some cool stuff?"

"Yeah why not?" Inataro agreed "It's going to be great seeing what new weapons and items are in this game."

Even though it seemed like a good idea, going to the next town was not as easy as it seemed because no one playing this new game had discovered it yet. Eventually someone did stumble across it and players slowly started to accumulate there. When Inataro and Kat arrived, there were only about two hundred people in town, but one of them was Ghost.

"Hi guys" he call out "If you've come here to do some shopping, you'd better be quick because there are limits on the number of high power weapons for sale. Everyone here has been out slaying monsters and now they want to reap the rewards."

Kat was not impressed with Ghosts intrusion and she stared at him in the same way she would look at a steak dinner that had been burned to ashes. On the other hand, even though Ghost bothered her, she would still rather do a two person quest with him over Inataro, but in this world at least three people were needed to go on a quest.

Kat tried her best not to grimace as she smiled at Ghost, while he kept staring straight into her eyes without blinking.

"HEY YOU!" another player approached Ghost "I challenge you to a duel."

Ghost just stared at the intruder for a moment before he shrugged his shoulders, unsheathed his rapier and assumed a fighting stance. As the duel began, Ghosts opponent attacked with a sword like nothing Inataro had ever seen before; it looked both powerful and expensive.

Ghost did not bother to evade the attack, but met the foes blade full on; it was an exceptional defense block for a lower grade weapon. Sparks flew as the blades of the two weapons ground against each other. Ghost's opponent grit his teeth as he pressed down with his sword, but the closer his blade moved towards Ghost, the more resistance he encountered.

Ghost shot at the ground with a fireball as a distraction, enabling him to move around his opponent. An unscrupulous player may use a range attack like a fireball to strike an enemy during a close quarter fight, but not Ghost; he was not that kind of player.

The opponent retaliated with rapid attacks, over and over at Ghost who matched him sword to sword halting each hack and thrust. He could not explain how he knew, but Ghost had a strong hunch he was fighting against an Ice Magic user.

The man raised his hand in the air and created a Storm Freeze spell straight onto Ghost's skin; who having bigger ears, received a bigger case of frost bite.

"Good grief that's cold" Ghost shivered "I'd really like to settle down in front of a campfire for a while, but I guess this will have to do for now."

He raised his hand, shot a fireball overhead and basked in the radiated heat.

His opponent did not like Ghost acting like he was relaxing in a sauna, when they were suppose to be fighting to the virtual death. He believed he was better than Ghost and he needed to prove it.

Without hesitation, he leapt up and somersaulted to the precise spot he wanted to be before thrusting his rapier down. Ghost took a lot of damage from the attack, but he soon countered with a glowing blade, slashing through his opponents chest. Ghost's counter attack was far too much for his opponent who had to face up to the facts; he had well and truly lost the duel.

"Wow; you would have to be the greatest, most skilled person with a blade I have ever seen" Inataro exclaimed to Ghost.

"What did you just say?!" Kat asked through gritted teeth as she clenched her fists in anger.

"I didn't mean to offend you Kat" Inataro defended himself "but before entering this game, I was doing Kendo and Ghosts fighting style is the best I've ever witnessed."

Satisfied with his efforts, Ghost re-sheathed his weapon with the hope of getting back to having a nice, pleasant conversation with Kat and Inataro. Kat was still scowling at Inataro for his last comment, but her eyes rolled up towards the sky when she heard Ghost's voice; it was far too sweet for her taste.

Cooking skills in a full dive game were more important than most people thought; the ability to create nutritious meals gave a player a real edge over less skilled players when out of town. Inataro put his high skill level to good use by preparing a power building meal of chicken with potatoes and broccoli. In reality Kat had been very hungry, so she was glad Inataro's meal was just part of the game and not a trick to make her feel like she had already eaten.

"So Inataro; are you suggesting that because this new game is not as exciting or dangerous as SAO, we should just run around looking for creatures to slay, cook and eat?" Kat asked.

"No but I do think someone is following us" Inataro replied "This game may not kill us in the real world but I feel sure someone is trying to hunt me down; so it wouldn't be a good idea to go and fight Bosses in any dungeons right now."

Kat began to wonder if she should dissolve her party with Inataro because his paranoia was holding her back from having a fun game experience.

She didn't get the chance however when in a serious case of deja vu, the man who last challenged Inataro before the end of SAO, swooped down from the sky and tried to slay him by slashing him through his stomach; although still very menacing in the new game, the man looked quite different with blue pixie wings.

Spreading his own wings, Inataro leapt up in a forward somersault swinging his Katana in an arc, but the attacker blocked the blade and used flew up to double the height. Inataro fell back when a lightning hit him square in the chest. He was surprised to discover the attacker possessed such powerful magic as it almost knocked him to the ground.

He quickly pulled out a health potion from his inventory and squeezed it in his hand. His health may have been restored but he still had a strong feeling of intimidation from fighting this opponent. Inataro decided to use a Rekku combo move, slashing the opponent three times and pushing him back while doing a thousand points of damage.

Unlike a computer generated monster, Inataro's opponent could easily handle the combo. He had the gaze of a feral creature trying to scratch deep into Inataro's belly; but instead of claws, he used lightning to carry out the attack. Inataro was not about to just lay down and lose; he raised his right hand and released a shard of ice to block the electrical attack.

As he watched from below, Ghost could see this was no duel, it was an all out assassination attempt; so he stopped letting his friend be constantly bombarded and launched a fireball at the unscrupulous attacker.

In no way was Kat tempted to help Inataro, but she did like to show off how threatening she could be and she did not want to be outdone by Ghost. So she let go a fireball of her own, sending two towards the assassin.

The assassin raised his weapon in a defense move, putting it in position to deflect nearly all damage away from him.


End file.
